


Not My Circus

by freakypet



Category: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 13:08:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5929567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freakypet/pseuds/freakypet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She just wanted to go camping. Get away from the rat race for a few weeks. Relax in the Great Outdoors. Winding up in Ancient Greece following a couple of Heroes around was NOT in the plans. Iolaus, Hercules, OC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note - While I have been writing since I was teeny tiny, this is the very first story I have ever posted... actually, it's the very first story I have ever let anyone read. Unbeta'ed completely. Be gentle, I beg you :D Cross Posted On FanFiction
> 
> It's been years since I watched Hercules, so my portrayal is probably waaaay off. I just needed to get this out of my head.
> 
> Disclaimer, because apparently people might not realise I barely own the clothes I wear, let alone anything of value - Not my circus, not my monkeys, I'm just letting them out of their cages to play for a bit before I return them to their lawful owners. I could only WISH I was making some money, but alas, no monkey moonshine gold for me.

Light pierced her eyes and the pain made her groan softly. Beck realised that she was lying on stony ground, cold enough to leech the heat from her hip and legs. Slowly, the pain of rocks digging into her thigh overcame the thumping headache and she shifted onto her back. The digging changed from her hip to her shoulders and back and she realised that she was still wearing her backpack.

Gritting her teeth, she slid her hands down and achingly pushed herself up and onto her butt. Pain ripped through her body and she felt her head spin. The urge to vomit swelled and she choked as her throat fought to close over.  
Gradually, she gained control over herself and the pain subsided enough that she felt comfortable opening her eyes.

To say that she wasn't expecting what she saw would be a gross understatement.  
The last time her eyes had been open, she had been surrounded by 'tamed' wilderness of the State Park. Manicured paths, cleared brush, benches to rest on and camping areas maintained by State Park employees. Dry bush, the dominant colour being browny green thanks to the 2 yr long drought the state had been under.  
Now all she saw green. Bright green, lush green, dark green, every single shade of green could be seen in just once glance. Other colours made themselves known after a minute. Yellow flowers, red berries, glimpses of oranges and blues here and there. Even though the ground she was now sitting on was rocky, just a few steps away the ground was covered in a thick layer of vibrant green grass. It even looked as though it had just rained!

Patting her arms and legs, she ascertained that she was unharmed, even as her body softly throbbed its complaints. Her camping backpack was still firmly attached, the straps on her shoulders and waist still tight and comfortable. Her blue jeans and black hiking boots were dry and clean at least. Whatever had happened, at least it had occurred after the rain had stopped. But only just, she thought, as she watched the closest trees still dripping water from their leaves.  
Beck staggered to her feet, swaying as the world spun a waltz around her for a moment. As her head settled and everything came into view again, she realised that she was standing in the mouth of a cave of some sorts. An obvious fire pit showed that people had used the cave as shelter in the past. She pulled her phone out and using the flashlight, peered into the darkness of the back of the cave. But unwilling to venture in, she could only make out the back of the cave by the shadows moving around.  
She absent mindedly adjusted her backpack and glanced at her phone. It had apparently only been about an hour since she arrived at the remote location she had chosen to be her camp site. A two hour hike straight up the side of the mountain meant that the campsite was not a popular choice for most campers in the school holidays. Most tended to stick to the easier accessed areas, close to the swimming holes. A remote campsite with a non child friendly stream nearby was nearly always vacant.  
But this place was definitely NOT her favourite campsite. In fact, she barely even recognised the foliage around her. Instead of dry bush, it was a lush, healthy rainforest.

What the Hell?

As the sun hit her eyes, she realised that time was getting on and if she had any chance of figuring this situation out, standing around like a scarecrow in a corn field wouldn't solve anything.  
Checking her compass, she headed off into the forest. After a few moments, she realised that she was following a faint trail. Maybe a wildlife trail, she wondered. It was soon apparent to be as she stepped from the bushes and nearly tripped face first into a rushing river. Scat around the banks showed that animals came here regularly for water. She stored that info as a possible food source. Until she knew what was going on, she intended to hoard her precious store of packed food and supplement from around her.  
Wading out into the river, she tested the water and finding it potable, drank her fill. Fish darted around her legs and bugs drifted on the breeze next to her.  
'At least I got dumped in a virtual paradise' Beck chuckled to herself, 'Now where is the fly in this beauteous ointment?'

By the time the sun started to set, she was no closer to understanding anything! Hours of wandering around had shown her nothing but forest, stream and what she supposed passed for a road. Not wanting to venture too far from the cave, as she hadn't found anything similar, she had retreated there as soon as the sun started to sink.  
While her camping equipment was good quality, it was suited more to the drier region, not this wet landscape and she didn't want to test its water resistant abilities right now.  
Setting down the firewood she had been gathering, she went about setting up her tent in the safety of the cave. It didn't take long. She had been camping on her own since the 'Henry Incident', where her 'then' boyfriend had decided that he did the Manly Things, such as setting up the tent and BBQing the meat and going off fishing and SHE had been left with the "Wifey Duties" as he so quaintly put it. "Good practice Babe". Leaving her with the setting up of the entire camp, minus tent and portable BBQ and the cleaning and... well everything. The final straw had been when he hugged her from behind suggestively as she finished off washing the dishes after he and his unexpected mate had spent the afternoon fishing and drinking beers. The resulting fight and abandoning her at the campsite had happily sealed THAT crappy relationship, and she had since learnt the joy of camping on her own!

Campsite set up, fire starting to crackle in the gathering darkness, a pile of damp wood close by drying, she chuckled to herself. Well, she HAD wanted to get away from life for a while...

-%- -%-%- -%-%- -%-%- -%-%- -%-

Iolaus grinned as he ducked and weaved the punches and kicks thrown his way, returning them wherever an opening showed itself. The captives had fled as soon as he broke the cage door and now it was simply the cleanup of the bandits to go. Herc was on the other side of the encampment, dealing out some open handed justice himself. Ducking a sword and then driving the welder to his knees with a well placed stomach kick, Iolaus staggered at the sudden weight of a bandit on his back. Stumbling backwards, he slammed the man into a tree, grinning at the sound of the winded groan. The blonde spun to deliver a finishing punch, but tripped on sprawled legs. Spitting dust from his face-plant into the dirt, he scrambled to get to his feet before... nope, there is was, the ubiquitous foot to the ribs. Annnnd... yep, the hit to the back of his shoulders.

He could hear Hercules calling his name, asking if he was okay, but he couldn't get the air in. Grabbing the foot on its third pass to his abused ribs, he twisted viciously, causing his attacker to spin and collapse beside him. Not without a spinning foot to the face for his efforts though.  
He peered over towards where his partner was finishing off the last of his attackers, Herc clearly making his way to Iolaus. Suddenly, brown stained pants and filthy boots blocked his view and he groaned as he looked up into the face of the leader of this particular band of cutthroats. Fury covered the matted bearded face.  
'Oh shi...' Iolaus only thought before he was flying backwards. It was only at the panicked shout from his partner, that Iolaus suddenly remembered this particular group had camped on the side of a cliff, but surely he wasn't that close... yeah, he was.

His last thought as the cliff edge flew past him, was 'Herc is going to be pissed if I die again...'


	2. Chapter 2

Beck gathered up the fish from her storage line and started to make her way back to camp. It was her fourth day in this marvellous wilderness and she was loving it. Plenty of fish in the river and firewood in the forest. On her first night sleep, she had been reminded, quite abruptly in fact, on just how she had arrived here. A nightmare jogged her wayward memory. A blue swirly... Thing had suddenly appeared in front of her, sucking her in like a kid sucking on the last dredges of an ice-cream sundae.  
She watched Supernatural and Star Gate, she knew what that meant! Portal, dimensional doorway, gateway, wormhole, stargate, whatever you want to call it.  
She couldn't figure out why, and honestly, she didn't spend a lot of time wondering. Beck stayed in the cave for several reasons, one being that if the portal DID reopen for whatever reason, she really should try to get home. But it was also a 'safe place' in a world she had no idea about. She knew logically that there HAD to be other people, the fire pit and the road stated it as fact. But in the four days of being stranded here, not a sight or sound of a single human.

Beck had eyed off the various rabbits and deer that had scampered and wandered past though. But her lack of knowledge in catching and killing those was abundantly clear to her. And she had sussed out what she thought was a root vegetable, she watched the rabbits dig it up and eat it. Trials had not given her any ill effects and it tasted similar to sweet potato, so she added it to her extremely meagre vegetable list. She was still hoarding her packed foods.  
In this mindset, she was planning to leave the cave. For every three fish she caught, she was cooking one to eat and the rest she was drying. Thank goodness for her interest in preserving foods! She had thanked the gods when she unpacked her travel oven and knew exactly what to do.

The line of 7 fish caught momentarily on a bit of driftwood, causing Beck to glance down to fix it. It was on her eyes return to her path out of the river, that she caught a glimpse of colour.

With a skipped heartbeat, she suddenly realised what she was seeing. A body, trapped in the upturned roots of a floating tree. The tree had wedged on the bank on the other side, but it was clearly a person. Beck's first instincts were to rush over. It was only as she approached, that she thought to herself that maybe she shouldn't be so eager. She definitely didn't want to see a DEAD body, all bloated and nasty from the river! By the time the thought had crossed her mind, it was too late. She reached out to the sodden purple vest and tugged gently. Nope, stuck.  
Beck pulled out her knife and started to cut away the tangling roots. Slowly, she uncovered the form of an unconscious man. Face down, wedged firmly in the roots, she could make out the soaked blond hair of a definite man. It took a while to free him. As Beck tugged and shoved the man around, he groaned quietly, shocking her into freezing still. But it was the only sign the body was still alive. His hand was locked onto the last root and it took all her strength to force him to release his saving roost. She panicked as he suddenly slid from the tree into the water and she flailed around, desperately attempting to pull him back above the water line. God, he weighed a freaken ton!  
With the buoyancy of the river and her own not quite meagre strength, she was finally able to get him out of the river and on to the bank on her side of the river. Gasping from the effort, she rested on the bank next to him while she recovered her own strength.

What on EARTH was she supposed to do with him now? He was way too heavy for her to carry the rest of the way out of the water, let alone to her cave. And she could see that he wasn't in any condition to help.

From what she could see, the vest covered a multitude of multicoloured bruises and cuts. The most concerning ones were his face, where he had a really nasty gash to his forehead and left eyebrow, a massive bruise covering nearly half his face. There was also a deep, sluggishly seeping wound to his right ribs. The purpling bruise under the wound worried her also. She had seen busted ribs that didn't look as bad as that did.  
Beck knew she couldn't leave him there. She had no idea what predators were around, but she had heard enough noises at night to convince her that they were at least present in this land.

It was completely dark by the time she wrangled the unconscious man back to her cave tent.  
Shaking violently from the struggle, she nearly sobbed as she eased him off the travois she had made from some saplings, her jacket and shirt and her precious fishing line. She stared longingly at her bedroll, but forced herself to tend to the man.  
Beck stripped off the rest of her own soaked clothes, hanging them by the smouldering fire and quickly dressing in dry clothes. Then she turned to the strange visitor in her camp.  
His hair had started to dry, showing it to be longish, blond and curly. His muscular body was covered in goosebumps as he started to shiver in the cooling night. Daytime wasn't so bad, but it got quite cool at night, the fire the only source of heat she had. Quickly, she sacrificed some of her generous wood stash and soon had a blazing fire pumping out welcoming heat and light.  
Beck grabbed her first aid kit, and with prayers to whomever was listening, tended her 'guest'.

It took a bit of figuring out, but she worked out how to remove his swollen leather pants and boots, taking great care to keep her eyes on her task and NOT on the increasingly attractive body in front of her eyes.  
All those thoughts were quickly shoved from her thoughts as the real extent of the man's injuries made themselves known.  
Not only was he covered in gashes, cuts and bruises, scars also littered his body. Including a very shudder inducing scar in the centre of his chest. But it was the wounds on his side, face and the newly visible bruise on the outside of his right left leg from calf to hip that really scared her. These were completely beyond her ability to tend. But she had no idea where a hospital was, and to be honest, she was more and more convinced that where she was, there WAS no such thing.  
Nothing for it. She had to at least try. Her conscience refused to even think of anything less.

It was well after midnight, according to her phone's clock, by the time she finished the last stitch on his forehead. She would have to bandage over his eyes as the gash had extended onto his eyelid, and everytime it moved, the stitches pulled and bled.  
He definitely had at least one broken rib and she felt pretty sure his leg was dodgy too. A splint from her wood pile and nearly the entirety of her bandages, as well as her least liked t-shirt had gone to binding the leg and and the stitched ribs. Even though the process would have definitely been excruciating, he had not uttered another sound the entire time. Several times Beck had worriedly lain her ear to his chest to check the man still even lived.

She had finally finished tending the man's injuries, cleaned him up, smeared a miser's amount of antibiotic cream on all his injuries, both large and small and wrangled him into her sleeping bag. Beck was now deeply grateful she had bought the double sleeper instead of the single she had planned.

The warning beep of her phone startled her from her slight doze. She had used the light sparingly, but it still drained the battery. She reminded herself to hook up the solar charger in the morning and tripped her way around the darkened camp. Hanging the man's clothes up next to hers to dry, cleaning away all traces of blood to avoid any predators, setting her camp pot near the fire to heat the last of her water all took the last of her energy. She sunk down next to the man, attempting to at least draw some of the fire's warmth her way. Now that she had given Him her sleeping bag, all she had was one of two thermal blankets from her emergency kit. But the cool night air was nothing compared to her utter exhaustion and sleep claimed her almost immediately.

~~~~ ~~~~

It was the unfamiliar sounds of shuffling on cave floor that startled her awake. Dawn was just creeping in the mouth of the cave, just lighting the area up enough to calm her racing heartbeat. Just Him, twitching and shivering. She gasped at the feel of heat that radiated from his body, felt well before fingers reached skin. Damn! She should have thought of that! Wounded and soaking in a river filled with only god knows what, of COURSE he would get sick!  
Praying she wasn't making him worse, she crushed an aspirin in the warm water and stopped short. In order to help him drink it out drowning, she would have to lift him or his head at least. But would that mess up all her hard work? Compromising, she slid her hand under his head, tangling her fingers in his knotted curls and gently, oh so gently, lifted it enough that she could slowly trickle the medical water into his mouth. A little bit at a time, waiting until his throat moved showing he swallowed, she drained the cup.

The rest of the day followed suit. Aspirin every 5 hours, as she couldn't remember if it was 4 or 6 so compromised, water every hour. She only left briefly to replenish her water and fuel stocks and to place her solar charger in the sun at the front of the cave. The rest of the time, she was watching over her charge like a mother hen watches her chicks with a hawk around.  
It was late afternoon by the time his temperature peaked. Flushed and lips parched, she could hear the gasping quality of his breaths. Beck prayed more in this time than she had in the past 5 years. Her only experience with this was watching TV shows, so her fear was maxed while her knowledge was nil. But if she DID go by the wonderful world of educational survival shows, it was bad, very very bad.

She dribbled water carefully into his mouth, stopping to wipe it across his lips, in the vain hope that it would stop the awful cracking there. Scared in case he inhaled the water instead of drinking, she did tiny amounts lots of times, hoping it would help. Every hour, she would open the sleeping bag up and wipe him down with tepid water. The last drops of her Teatree oil sparingly shared across the bowls of water. The fire continued to blaze and she was again thankful she had collected so much. It made her quick forays outside brief and she rushed back, afraid to leave him alone for long.

And so it went all night. She prayed that if she fell asleep, she wouldn't wake to a corpse in her sleeping bag. Normal human functions had nearly ruined it, before she remembered and lay her final thermo blanket between him and the bag. Easy to clean and it kept the bag from getting wet in her hourly wash downs. But if he died, she knew she would burn the lot and screw the consequences.  
Catching naps and jerking awake at his crackly breathing, she was utterly wiped out by morning. Her head throbbed but she couldn't risk using any of the aspirin for herself, so she gorged herself on water and dried fish instead.

As so the day repeated. The only difference now, was that she kept falling asleep between tending her patient and camp duties. The second she stopped, she felt herself drift off. After she nearly fell into the fire for the second time, Beck decided that it was probably safer to lay down and properly sleep. She only hoped that she would wake quickly and clearheadedly if she was needed. With that almost convincing thought, she fled to the land of sleep in the time it took to close her eyes.  
She slept badly and the start of day two (had it only been about 36hours?) looked like it would be following the previous, minute for minute.  
By now, Beck was dying for a quick wash in the river and she also desperately needed to get a lot more wood. She checked her patient. She thought he was cooler... but was that only her desire to get clean speaking? But she couldn't wait, her skin felt like it was going to crawl off her bones.  
Leaving a cup of water by his side and making sure the fire was safely out of reach, she silently promised him that she wouldn't be long.

An hour later, clean and carrying a huge armload of wood and a refilled bucket of water, she breathed a sigh of relief when she returned to the cave. Her patient hadn't moved a muscle. It probably wasn't a good thing, but to her guilty mind, she took it as such.  
Lunch was cooking on the fire – baked beans as she couldn't face dried fish again. While she waited, she washed him down again. This time, he was definitely cooler. The relief made her lightheaded. It had to be a good sign, it just had to be.  
By the time lunch was finished, camp was tidied and everything organised again, he was definitely improving. It was awfully fast, she thought, but not knowing any different, she tried not to dwell on it. Another nap beside Him and she was feeling more and more positive about his survival.

It wasn't until the next morning though that he made his first sound. It wasn't even light, but something had woken her. The fire had burned down and was only a bright glow, flickering softly on the cave ceiling. The next groaning whisper stirred her to action and she leaned down over Him, her eyes roaming his features quickly. His face was no longer flushed and now it was speckled in sweat. Knowing that he was probably sweating from the breaking of the fever, she spoke softly, hopefully letting him know that she was helping him. Wiping him over with the last of the warmed water, she kept up a constant stream of reassurances, answering his whispers and sighs with whatever came to her lips. Hoping he understood English at least, she quickly finished up and covered him up again. His hand shakily exited the warmth of the sleeping bag, she watched as he felt the bandage covering his eyes.

"Herc?" Oh okay, that was definitely recognisable. Was it a name? Beck wondered as she reached out and gently grasped his wrist, intending to move it away from the bandages. Before she should even draw a breath to squeak her terror, he lashed out, seizing her wrist in an iron grip. Heart racing, she struggled to regain control of her hand, but it just caused the man to yank her with surprising force towards him. Lightning fast, his other hand somehow gripped her hair at the back of her head and she found herself arching over him, one arm stretched over him, her head pressed against his chest.  
" .You?" He gasped hoarsely into her ear. Out the corner of her eye, she could see the strain on his lower face, but it showed not a bit in the force with which he held her.  
"I helped you! I helped you. I pulled you out of the river!" Other than a flinch at the sound of her voice, he remained as still as a stone.  
Deciding that remaining still was the safest thing against a man built like a modern day muscle builder, she let herself slump gently against him. It was like a switch had been flicked. Her arm and hair were abruptly released and she felt herself being pushed away. A frown crossed the lower half of his face and she could swear she could hear him thinking. His hand slowly felt the unfamiliar fabric of her sleeping bag and then disappeared into it as he obviously felt the bandages and thermo blanket under him.  
"What. Happened? Where's. Herc?" The brokenly whispered words seem to creep into the dawn morning of the cave.  
Not moving any closer, Beck slowly sat up and reached for the water cup.  
"I'm sorry, I don't know who 'Herc' is, but I'm the only one here. Well, other than you that is" She debated her next action, but the dry tongue sweeping across still cracked lips decided for her.  
"If you promise not to grab me again, I have some water for you?" Waiting until he nodded, barely nodded that is, she placed her hand on his shoulder. Ignoring his flinch, she slid her hand under his head and when he realised what she was doing, helped to lift his head. Carefully, she held the cup to his lips and let him drink until he turned his face away.

It seemed that was the extent of his energy. After waiting a few minutes, Beck realised that he had fallen asleep again.  
It was about 4 hours later that he roused again. She had just returned from gathering some more water and firewood – seriously at this rate, she needed to somehow make a bigger bucket! – and jumped a foot at the sound of his voice, spilling half the water at the cave entrance.  
"You were gone"  
"Holy CRAP dude! Don't DO that! You scared the shit outta me!" Clutching her hand to her chest, she breathed deeply, trying to calm her pounding heart. His –quite honestly gorgeous!- lips turned down in confusion at her words. "sorry, umm, I was grabbing some water and wood. Did you need something?" She asked, setting down the water and wood by the cave entrance.  
Even from where she was standing, she could see his cheeks blush.

Oh.

OH.

Until now, she had simply done it as part of nursing him, but now that he was awake, it was completely different. It was then she noticed that he had obviously attempted to get out of the bag, but had ended up getting all tangled. Beck hurried to his side immediately.

"Oh jeez, I'm so sorry, here, let me help..." Between the two of them, they somehow managed to get him out of the tangling fabrics. Beck wrapped the thermo blanket around his waist and gently supported him with an arm around his waist. His warm, smooth, silky...stop it Beck! She castigated herself sternly. He's an injured man, who is currently temporarily blindfolded as well! But now that his personality was becoming more obvious and no longer a potential corpse, she couldn't help herself. There was something about a well built man... NO!  
With one arm around her shoulder and the other holding the blanket, she helped him limp out to the bushes. By the time he did what he had to and limped back in, Beck was struggling to hold him up and he was shaking and sweating from the effort. Still, she was incredibly impressed that he was even able to stand, let alone make it out to pee.  
She felt that it was time he was probably hungry, so decided to make up a fish stew with some dried veggie packs from her hoard. It was then that she realised that no names had been exchanged. She was still thinking of him as 'Him' or "patient".  
"By the way, introductions seem to have been skipped somewhere along the way' she chuckled and was pleased to see a smile skip briefly across his face, 'I'm Beck, new around here and whom do I have the pleasure of nursing?" With that, she actually got a single chuckle from him as he sat on the sleeping bag.  
"Hi Beck, strange name so guessing you aren't local. I'm Iolaus." Followed with a brief wave of his hand that Beck caught and slid a bowl of fish stew into. Luckily she had two bowls – you always seemed to need more than one – and she settled next to him as they ate in silence.  
Once finished, Beck took the bowls, leaving them to the side to clean later and sat back next to Iolaus.  
"Well, Eeowless' she drawled, 'I really need to check your bandages, do you mind?" She rested her hand on his shoulder, noting this time no flinch. At his 'go on' gesture, she started with the thigh. The fact that he could walk on it with only a moderate limp, probably meant that it wasn't broken, just badly bruised. He confirmed when she asked him how it felt.  
"It`s not broken, although it hurts like Tartarus! But my ribs on the other hand..." as he lifted his arm to allow her freer access to that side. She apologised when he flinched at her touch on the stitches and she grabbed his other hand to show him what she had done.  
"How bad is it?" His question was firm, as though the answer didn't concern him all that much.  
"Let's just say it was almost out of my limited skills to fix" Beck replied smartly. Iolaus frowned at that.  
"Just how experienced are you Beck?"  
"Oh, bumps and scrapes mainly. You certainly tested my knowledge of TV learning!" She finished with a laugh but the strange words caused a frown on Iolaus's face.  
"T...v..?"

And with that, Beck knew without a doubt, she wasn't in Kansas anymore!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - Nothing is mine except this story and my OC, everything else I am merely sneaking out of the storage room and playing with. I promise I'll return it soon
> 
> I have combined the shorter chapters, so I hope they still read as well.

So she started to explain what happened when she found him in the river, the tree, but skipped the struggle to the cave and went straight to the doctoring up part. Finishing with "Then you ate all my soup! HA!" By this time, she had unwrapped the bandage over his eyes and was gently peeling the bloody pad off the stitches. Before replacing the antibiotic cream and a fresh medical pad over the stitches, she asked if he could see anything through the swollen lids. His left eye was swollen completely shut and his right was nearly the same. His pained squint as he tried was all the answer she needed.  
"Seriously Iolaus, did you fight a mountain with your face, mate?" Beck asked, half jokingly. Iolaus laughed.  
"I guess I did! Herc and I – Herc is my best friend – were fighting some bandits and I got a little too close to the edge of the cliff and ...bam! Face, meet cliff! Or river I guess, that part's a bit fuzzy."  
"Holy crap Iolaus! I was joking! Seriously? It's a wonder you're alive hon!" She gasped in horror. "Well, it certainly explains your injuries!" She finished retying the bandage and helped Iolaus lay back against her pack.  
As he relaxed, he spoke a question that had obviously been plaguing him.  
"Where IS Herc? You haven't seen him?"  
Beck paused in her tidying up. This was a loaded question, in more ways than she could understand. So in typical Beck fashion, she didn't even try. Life was a lot easier that way.  
"Iolaus, other than you, I literally haven't seen a single person since I got here myself! I was starting to think this place was completely deserted!" A minutes silence passed and Beck waited. She knew one thing already. Iolaus was a curious one. You could always spot the curious ones!  
"That's strange. Unless I floated further down river than I think, this area should have at least travellers. By my guess, we should be around Certlis. Any further and I would have hit the sea."  
"Dunno what to say hon." Beck said softly. She could see the struggle to understand on his face and she searched around for a topic to take his mind of it.  
"So, Eeowless, tell me about this friend of yours..."

Boom! That was it! Iolaus' face lit right up. With a quirk to his mouth – oh that gorgeous mouth – that spoke of something he knew she didn't, he settled back, accepting the cup of tea she passed him.  
"What can I say about Herc? Well, He's Hercules..." He paused as though she was going to interrupt him. As though the name should mean something.  
"Go on, his name isn't going to tell me much.." She laughed at his almost shocked expression. His jaw dropped and he stared in her direction.  
"Oh come on, I can accept you not knowing me, after all, no one ever does. But everyone knows of Hercules. Demigod? Son of Zeus? Hero extordinaire?" Beck laughed out loud at the disbelief coming from the blond man.  
"Seriously Iolaus, I'm not joking. I'm literally NOT from around here, in any form. Let's just say my holiday went a little awry. So stop being all 'but but but' and tell me about the two of you."  
"Hhmmm, we are coming back to this 'holiday' of yours soon, don't think you will get away from explaining that! But Herc and myself... well, we were actually on our way back from a hydra hunt when we ran into those bandits..."

The rest of the afternoon past quickly. Beck found herself laughing quite a bit at Iolaus' tales of his adventures with Hercules. Often bragging himself up at some points, then almost fading into the background at others, Beck grew to understand one main thing about these two. They were partners in every sense of the word. Iolaus showed a love of Hercules that was only found in books back in Beck's world. Books and the occasional movie. Oh and that Sherlock show with the actor with the cabbage patch kid name. It glowed from him, even with his face half hidden.  
They talked the entire day away, with Beck doing what she needed, and Iolaus chatting away while she did. There was a short period of silence after another trip to the bushes and a nap, but come dinner and they were chatting up a storm again,  
Beck was careful to keep Iolaus off her story. She had no idea what was happening, so she figured the best thing to do was keep as quiet as possible. She knew Iolaus knew. The pauses in conversation, the crook of his head as he 'looked' at her when she changed the topic. But for now, he kept his questions to himself, allowing her a pretence of privacy at least. Hopefully, they would part ways before she had to make any decisions.

But the thought scared her and THAT worried her. She had known him all of one day really, when you come to think about it. But already he seemed like a lifeline she hadn't realised she had been reaching for. That was NOT like her! In fact, 'back home' she had few friends outside of work and while she had the usual online friends, no one that would question her disappearance until months down the track, if at all. No family, no pets, no boyfriend after Henry. She had just taken 3 months off work for an extended holiday. Working at a bank as a Financial planner she loved, but it wasn't stimulating and most of the people she worked with were as insular as her. So no one to miss her for another 3 months at least! She loved her quiet life. So why was the thought of being on her own here unsettling her?

It was then she realised Iolaus had gone quiet. Looking up, she shivered as she caught him looking directly at her. With the bandages on, blocking his eyesight and messing with his hearing, any normal person would have struggled with knowing where someone else was. But he knew where she was all the time. No cocking his head to the side to catch her voice or noise of her movement. It was unnerving to say the least.

"What? Jeez Iolaus, stop doing that, it's as creepy as fuck!" When he didn't respond, she knew he understood what she meant. And didn't THAT freaking creep her out too.  
Rubbing the chill from her arms, she gathered up her blanket and walked to the tent. She had slept outside of it while Iolaus had been unresponsive, but now that he was awake, she felt uncomfortable so close to him.  
"Well Iolaus, I'm heading off to bed, you need anything before I go?" At his negative and watching him slide smoothly into the sleeping bag – damn, he's a quick learner – she disappeared into her tent.  
Now that Iolaus wasn't needing the other thermo blanket, Beck had reclaimed it for her own. It still wasn't nearly as comfortable as her luxury sleeping bag, but at least she was still warm this far away from the fire. Sleep claimed her again quickly. But not for long.

She jerked awake. Her heart screaming in her chest and her breath caught in her throat. What the hell? She listened hard, trying to figure out what woke her so abruptly. Her heart was just slowing down when the scream echoed around the cave. She jumped as though someone just tasered her ass.  
Literally falling out of the tent, scrabbling for the knife she left at the tent flap, she fell to her knees on the rough cave floor, clutching the knife and trying to see through her tangle of hair as it blocked her vision. Resisting the urge to slice and dice the offending follicles, she wildly glanced around the cave.

Nothing.

The fire glowed softly, everything was where she had left it, nothing new wandering around.

What The Freaking Hell?

Adrenaline still racing around her body, her heart pumping, she carefully made her way to the entrance of the cave. Nope nothing. Coming back to stand near the still and quiet Iolaus, she stared down at her new friend. Surely not him? She squatted down and fell promptly on her ass as another shout ripped from his throat and he fought the confining folds of the sleeping bag.

Oh god – Nightmare!

Without thinking, she reached out and shook his shoulder, attempting to wake him up. To which she received a full power punch to the face.

It threw her backwards, blood gushing from her excruciatingly throbbing nose and tears streaming from her eyes. She clutched at her face, gasping wordlessly at the overwhelming pain. She mindlessly kicked her leg out from the pain in her face, catching Iolaus in the shoulder. An iron grip clasped her calf and yanked hard, almost throwing her on the fire, stopped only by the cooking stone she had placed there earlier in the day. The corner of rock caught her on the side of her head, causing instant stars to flash before her eyes.  
Terrified, she lashed out, kicking Iolaus's hand off her leg and she scrabbled away to the safety of the other side of the fire. Blood was still flowing from her nose, soaking the front of her t-shirt and was now joined by the blood from the gash at her temple.  
She watched as Iolaus thrashed about, screaming and calling Hercules name.  
'Stupid girl, Beck! Stupid stupid STUPID! A warrior like Iolaus would have faced things any other person would not have to face and if half those stories are true, it's surprising he's still sane! And you just waltz up and shake him in the middle of a nightmare! You deserved this and more! Moron!'  
She continued to scream at herself in her mind as she watched Iolaus battle his dream demons. She had to do something! It was heartbreaking to watch and at best, he would pull his stitches and she didn't have any left!  
Staying well out of striking distance, even for Iolaus, she softly and calmly called his name. Telling him that he was safe, he was with friends, he was safe. As he calmed, she swallowed her fear, and the throat full of disgusting nose blood –gag, don't think about it, don't think about it – and drew closer. Taking all her fear and wedging it firmly down down down and keeping up her hopefully comforting litany of reassurances, she reached out a – very – shaky hand and stroked his hair back from his face.

Iolaus froze... and so did Beck's very soul, she swore, but she kept talking and stroking and Iolaus collapsed into the sleeping bag with a sob. Beck eased forward, still stoking his forehead above the bandage and eventually, she had his head on her lap, fingers combing his hair as Iolaus sobbed into her lap. His body curled around her like a giant cat, arms around her waist, and head on her lap. Her lap she suddenly realised was missing its usual cover of blue denim. Bugger.  
Not wanting to stop her comforting of the broken man, she pulled the sleeping bag over them both and settled down for a night of soothing a crying warrior.

The sunlight poked and prodded at her eyes, forcing her to bury her head into her sleeping bag.

Whaa...? HER sleeping bag? She woke up a bit more and suddenly realised two things.  
One, she had obviously fallen asleep at some point during the night and lain down and two, Iolaus was spooning her, his large arm resting over her waist, holding her tight to his incredibly muscular body... ahem. Beck mentally cleared her throat and took stock.

He was heavy when leaning on her, his arm and oh look, his leg as well, trapping her close and holding her tight. To be fair, her evil mind chuckled, you ain't complaining, are ya? Shooing away the naughtily right voice, she sank into the luxurious heat of Iolaus's incredible body for just a second. Just one little naughty second, she promised herself. Not a moment more...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, she woke with the instant knowledge that she had definitely stayed for more than one second and two... Iolaus had morning wood. Impressive morning wood. The kind of morning wood that made a woman think bad dirty thoughts...

Which fled in terror the second she felt him stir. Oooohhh, this was ONE conversation she did NOT want to have! No way, no how!  
Easing her way out of the warm heaven of Iolaus's arms and her sleeping bag, she slunk into her tent and pulled on her cold, not-Iolaus's-warm-embrace, jeans and socks and shoes, readying herself for the day.

The previous night had exhausted the troubled warrior and he slept through the breakfast routines and was still sleeping when Beck returned from her morning swim. She was hoping that Iolaus might be able to tell her how to catch one of the many rabbits she saw on her morning route to the river. Fish was getting really tiring really fast.  
It wasn't until she had the last of her porridge cooked and served did Iolaus stir from his slumber. Even with his face half hidden by the bandages, she could read the exhaustion on him like a blanket. Right, do I do this quietly or normally? She studied the man in front of her and suddenly knew that anything less than normal would shame the warrior. If he wanted to speak of it, he would.  
So she stood and brushed her hands on her jeans noisily, ignoring the jumping flinch that it caused.  
"Wakey Wakey, hands off snakey Iolaus, breakfast is ready!" With that, she grasped his hands, again ignoring the flinch, and passed over a warm bowl of porridge and fruit. Breakfast was spent in quiet, both too busy eating and drinking their tea to talk much. Neither were fabulous morning people it seemed.

Once that was done and cleaned up, Iolaus had requested that Beck help him to the river. He felt the need to get clean and while Beck totally understood that, she worried the distance was too much. But he wasn't to be swayed and Beck cursed stubborn warriors and told him that if he couldn't make it back, he could just sleep where he fell. The resulting laughter seemed to break the residual tensions and they felt back on the same footing as the day before.

It wasn't long until Iolaus was floating gently in the river, his head well above the water but soaking up to his neck. Using Beck's bar of soap, which had elicited a barrage of questions when he first smelt it, he sudded up the river bank until he finally declared himself clean. Beck lounged on a tree trunk on the bank, trying to convince herself she was only there to stop him floating away, but certainly taking more enjoyment than she should out of watching the fit man bathe in the sunlit river.  
God he was gorgeous! All bronze skin and rippling muscles, flowing blond hair and that smirk... jeez, he could make her panties melt right off! Add in sparkling water droplets glistening on his skin... she pressed her thighs together in a vain attempt to still the almost painful throbbing.  
Iolaus turned to come out of the water, sun glistening on hot, wet body and made it halfway to the bank when he stopped and cocked his head in Beck's direction. 'Damn that's still hella creepy' she thought to herself. Watching Iolaus put his hands on his hips, she silently urged him to come just .step. out of the water... just .Step and she would have enough gold for her spank bank vault to last a freaking lifetime!  
As though he heard her thoughts as loud as spoken words, he laughed, throwing his whole body into the action. Head back, chest out, hands on hips, his whole body rocked with his laughter. His caused hers to slip out too.  
"Okay Mr Universe, what's so funny?' she giggled. He merely looked in her direction and she knew. But he couldn't 'prove' it now could he? So she pretended innocence. "Are you stuck Iolaus? Do I need to come help?" She jumped off the tree trunk, brushing her hands off on her jeans, grinning at the chance to feel up that godlike body – all in the name of helping of course! Heehee!  
"ah ah aaahh! Oi, you just stay right there missy! And turn around! I can feeeeeel you, you know, all staring and unmaidenly things! Turn Around!"  
Beck burst out laughing, Iolaus joining in as he sent a splash of river towards her. Grabbing her towel and spinning around, she held the fabric at arm's reach behind her.  
"Fine, Mr Spoilsports! Deny a woman a chance to see heaven, just once! And less of the maiden crap mate!" Still laughing, she heard his exit of the river and after brushing her arm, he managed to grab the towel and she heard him wiping down.

Temptation starting to get to her, she figured a peek, just a little, wouldn't hurt...

The snap of the towel on her ass, made her squeal in laughing shock!  
"I said! No Peeking! Eyes front!"  
Almost doubled over from laughter, she managed to gasp out "Are you lying your cute ass off when you say you can't see?"  
"Oh, you saying I have a cute ass? Hmmmm, I guess I do"  
"Freaken great, your head is growing as we speak isn't it? I can feel the air rushing towards me as it grows..."

The banter continued as they made it back to camp. Iolaus's healing was extraordinary, his limp nearly gone and he was obviously in less pain than the previous day. Once back at camp, Iolaus set about tidying 'his' area while Beck got to cooking the fresh fish she had just caught. Iolaus had promised to talk her through a rabbit snare after their lunch and she was eager to try adding some red meat to their diet.

It was an afternoon of talking and laughing. Iolaus was the kind of person who strove to make those around him laugh and enjoy themselves and Beck was happy to oblige. He also loved to share stories of his and Hercules adventures, again Beck was more than happy to oblige. It kept him from asking too many questions about her own story and was extremely entertaining as well.  
Both Iolaus and Beck were terrible flirts and this showed in their conversation. It stayed light and fluffy, but Beck had to admit, it was a great change to speak to someone who wasn't afraid of sexuality for once. More than once, she caught herself looking at Iolaus a little too long, or felt the laughter a little too much. But she reasoned that she had been on her own probably too much so it was a natural reaction to the whole situation. No, she told herself, it's just a case of lusty for the hunky man, that's all.  
After Iolaus had talked her through the rabbit snares, she agreed that she would put them out for the evening to see what she caught. Close enough to the cave that she could check just before it got really dark. Iolaus wanted to sit in the last of the afternoon sun while she was off setting the traps, so once she got him settled, she set off into the forest.

It was there that she heard it. The sound that signalled the end of her 'pretend' time.

She had just set the last of the three snares with her fishing line, when she heard it. A voice. Sounded like it was towards the river. She froze. What the hell should she do? She was torn between racing back to Iolaus – all his stories of monsters and bandits had apparently made their mark on her and a wounded warrior was still a flippen warrior! – and creeping to the river to see who it was.  
Her protective streak won out. No way would she risk the healing man. Checking it out herself it was then.

"Iolaus!"

'Well, that kinda solved that' Beck thought.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usual disclaimer - Nothing is mine except this story and my OC

It could only be the elusive Hercules then. Creeping as quietly as she could, she managed to spot the tall – 'fuck me he's tall' she whispered in surprise – man in yellow who was pacing the river bank.

Ah... He could see the footprints from their many visits to that spot in the river. Squeaking in surprise as his eyes scored the brush where she was hiding, she ducked down and prayed she hadn't been spotted. Then the thought struck her. Why the hell was she hiding? Iolaus had been worried when Hercules hadn't come for him and although he was hiding it, Beck had seen the way he froze to listen at random times. Peering up slowly, she watched as Hercules turned and strode back up the way he had come. Huh? He saw the footprints, he knew 'someone' at least was here but he wasn't checking it out? His shout startled her into slipping and face planting into the loam of the forest floor. Just what her bruised and swollen face needed – Forest Floor Masque!

Crawling out a little ways, she saw that he was waving to someone standing on a wagon on the far side of the river. Hercules and the other had a quick shouting conversation, then the wagon pulled away and headed further downstream. Meanwhile, Hercules started studying the ground again.

That was her cue.

As silently as possible, Beck raced back to the cave and Iolaus. Instead of lazing back in the dying sunlight, he was as she had expected. Really, those two truly were connected. Standing at the edge of the forest line, his face turned anxiously towards the tree line. His body fairly vibrated with the barely suppressed anxiety. Beck nearly bowled him over, she was running so fast that she nearly couldn't stop in time. Catching both her upper arm as she grabbed him to halt her flight, he fair shook her to answer his questions.  
"Who was that? I heard shouting. Are you okay? Was it Herc? Or bandits? Are you hurt?"  
Gasping from lack of breath and Iolaus shaking her, it took a minute for her to catch her wind and shake Iolaus off. Not a small task, mind you, she would have bruises in the morning. But she completely understood his near panic.  
"Iolaus, if Hercules is a mountain of a bloke with hands like flipping frying pans, all dressed in yellow and leather, then yes, it's Hercu..." Before she could even finish, Iolaus was stumbling his way down the tiny path, calling out for his friend!

"Herc! HERC!"

Beck followed closely until Iolaus nearly walked into a tree trunk in his haste. It was only Beck grabbing the back of his pants and basically sitting down that veered him off the collision path.  
"Hey, Captain Insano, let me led before you kill yourself!" She grabbed his hand and started to lead him down the path. Well, lead was a generous word, more like it was a guided pushing, as Iolaus pushed her faster and faster in front of him. It was only about a minute, when they heard the answering call.  
"IOLAUS!"  
"HERE HERC!"  
Beck barely had time to drop and roll out of the way as the giant mountain of a man came crashing out of the forest like some kind of drunken dinosaur and wrapped his huge freaken arms around Iolaus.  
She rolled once more to get out of the way of possible feet and found herself under a flippen huge fern. From the dubious safety of the greenery, she watched as the men hugged each other, arms wrapped about torsos, Iolaus' head resting on Hercules chest. Hercules burying his nose in Iolaus's blond curls. It was long minutes before either man moved. Beck could see the sheer relief on the tall man's entire body while Iolaus clung to his friend like a monkey to its mother, safe in the knowledge that everything was right in his world again.

The first to move was Iolaus, the strain of the day and the relief causing him to feel his injuries and sag in his friend's arms.  
Immediately Hercules sat him on a nearby tree root. Herc squatted down, reached up and felt the white fabric of the bandage on his head, covering Iolaus eyes.  
"Iolaus, what happen? I've been searching for days, I was so ..." his voiced cracked and Beck saw him drag his control back, strand by straining strand. Iolaus lifted a hand and placed it on the big man's chest.  
"Herc, I'm okay, really, just a bit banged around from the river journey" he chuckled. "I don't think even you could bring me back again, so I had to be okay, huh." The Demigods face clouded over and his massive hand settled gently on Iolaus shoulder  
"Iolaus, don't even joke about that! I just spent the past three days worried out of my head..."  
Hercules suddenly swooped and clutched the smaller man up in another massive bear hug, Iolaus feet left swinging this time. After a yelp of surprise, Iolaus simply hung there and hugged the big man back.

Beck felt the tears welling up in her eyes. The love between these two was so clear, so strong. It made her previous assumption of a true soul partnership seem almost tawdry in her understanding of it. This was so beyond that. She knew that this should have been a private time for the two of them. Quite honestly, she felt as though she was a dirty perve, sullying this touching moment with her mere presence. Thankfully it had rained the night before, so the underbrush was soft and the loam was silent as she oh so slowly eased herself back away. She nearly got away too, until she heard Iolaus speak her name.  
He WOULD have to remember right then that she had been there.  
Freezing statue still, she prayed to whatever entity was listening that they wouldn't find her. Really, she did not want to explain why she was lying in the dirt, attempting to sneak away.

But it seemed her prayers were all used up.

"Beck, where are you?"  
"Iolaus, who are you talking to?"  
"Beck pulled my ass from the river, she was just here... Beck!"  
"I don't see anyone... hang on..."

Beck felt her heart sink, yep, she had obviously used up all her prayers on Iolaus's stupid ass. Hearing a rustling above her, she glanced up to see Hercules parting the ferns above her, grinning as he stared down.

"Beck I presume?"

~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A huge hand appeared in front of her face and she reluctantly grasped it, only to find herself almost flying into the air at the tug he gave.  
"whoops, sorry about that. Hi I'm Hercu..."  
"yep, heard all about you from chatterchops over there" Beck interrupted, pretending to brush the mud and leaves from her now soaked jeans, looking away from the demigod.  
Really, she would have to wash these again. Stupid damn mud.  
Seeing movement from the corner of her vision, she looked up to see Iolaus sway a little as he made his way over to them. She unthinkingly reached out for Iolaus' arm, only to find Hercules already there, supporting his partner with an arm around his waist. She fought back the grin.  
"Iolaus, I though you said you were okay?" Herc asked, but he glanced at Beck when she snorted her opinion of THAT comment. A quick glance at her face and she knew she hadn't moved fast enough to avoid the demigod seeing the lovely purpling punchmark and rock wound. With a slight shake of her head and a glare of warning, she knew she had gotten her message when Hercules nodded slightly.  
"Oi, I know you two are talking about me, cut it out"  
"Pfft you wish, Big Head! Why would we talk about you? I was checking out Sexy God Boy here.. phwoooor." She burst out laughing at the sudden look of shock on Hercules face and completely missed the slight stiffing of Iolaus. "Come on Tight Ass, let's get you back to camp and you can fill each other in on what's been happen while I rustle up some grub" Beck nearly took off running, but forced herself to walk. She had no idea why all the conflicting emotions. She never felt emotions.  
She was Emotionless Girl.

She made it back to camp a few minutes ahead of the men, so set about heating water, changing into clean, dry clothes and had just started heating up the stew when Hercules and Iolaus arrived back. Herc was literally carrying Iolaus, his arm grasping the smaller man around his back and side, Iolaus's arm around Herc's shoulders. Iolaus sighed in relief when he lowered himself to the sleeping bag and stretched out.  
Beck watched, again out the corner of her eye, as Herc glanced around the cave, taking in the blue and green tent and the stainless steel and plastic utensils, Becks clothes – everything NOT of his world. And She knew. She knew she could no longer fob off the questions, there was no hiding it from this extremely intelligent man in front of her. With a start, she realised that Hercules was staring at her, an eyebrow raised in a silent question, Blatantly ignoring him, she turned to Iolaus and bossed him over, telling him to give room to his friend and to pass the bowls from beside him. Hercules chuckled, telling her in his own way that he wasn't fooled and that he could wait.

Fucking great she thought to herself, just fucking great!

"What's so funny Herc?"  
"Oh, nothing, just you!" The Big Man laughingly responded.  
"What?!"  
"You and this situation. Only you would find the only girl in the region and be waited on hand and foot" He laughed as he nudged his friends should as he sat beside him on the silver sleeping bag.  
Iolaus simply snorted in laughter and Beck wisely held her tongue.

It was only a few moments until she served the stew, having made it while having her snare lessons. Hercules tried to refuse his dinner when he realised that she only had the two bowls, but after a verbal battle, and the threat of a 'Full Beck Sulk', he laughingly gave in and quickly ate so she could have the bowl after.  
During the meal, Hercules shared what had happened after Iolaus took his swan dive off the cliff.  
Even with the proof of Iolaus's survival literally touching him, Beck could see that it was still extremely painful for the big man. Iolaus reached out and grasped his friend arm silently for a moment of understanding.  
After his swan dive, Herc had finished off the bandits (and Beck didn't want to know what that really meant, judging by the look that crossed both the men's faces) and raced down to the bottom of the cliff. But Iolaus had already vanished.  
Three days Hercules had spent scouring the river banks. Some traders had caught up with Herc and hearing of his search, offered to search the other side of the river.  
"Without their help, I would have been days from here still." Hercules was silent as he looked down at his hands. When he raised his head, Beck was shocked to see the remembered despair on the man's face. Her heart broke a little then. These two, they had been through so much and it had left its marks. As though he knew, Iolaus threw his arm over his partner's shoulders, well, around them anyway and hugged Herc to him. In an obvious attempt to change the sombre tone of the conversation, Hercules looked from Iolaus to Beck and back again.

"Well, what's the story here?"  
Beck could hear the double meaning of the question, even if Iolaus heard but didn't quite fully understand.  
"Oh you mean my angel of the Gods here?" And with the following scoff from Beck, proceeded to tell Hercules of his own journey of the past few days.  
Beck stayed out of the convo as much as possible. Easy enough to do with Iolaus telling the story. When he got to the part where Beck had stitched him up, Hercules pulled back Iolaus's vest and then gently slapped the back of the smaller man's head.  
"What was that for?" Iolaus indignant squawk sounded out.  
"Why didn't you tell me you had busted ribs, you idiot?" Herc again cast a look at Beck as he saw the pristine white stretchy 20th century bandages and bright green t-shirt that wrapped around the smaller mans chest. She raised her eyebrows in innocence right back at him.

As Iolaus finished his story, Hercules was gently removing the bandages from Iolaus chest.  
"Gods Iolaus, this looks like it was bad..." Herc could see that the proof in front of his eyes, didn't match the fairy story Iolaus had told. To be fair, Beck thought, he had been unconscious for most of the time. Beck knew her time was running short.  
She stood, glancing out at the darkening sky.  
"I.. I gotta go get those snares... be right back..." she stuttered and went to stride out, but Herc was tight there in front of her before she had taken 2 steps.  
"Freaking Damn Man! Warn a bi-atch before you do that!" At his confused 'huh', Iolaus burst into chuckles and told him not to worry about it, it was just 'Beck' speech. Beck attempted to dodge around the Demigod, but he was faster than a man that size had any right to be!  
Lowering his voice, he looked at Beck. "You and I must have a talk" he said, not unkindly.

All Beck could do was nod silently and escape into the near darkness of the night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - Nothing is mine except this story and my OC
> 
> Combined chapters again. (cross posted from FanFiction)

All three snares were tripped and thankfully for Iolaus's teachings, perfectly done so that the rabbits were dead when she arrived. She took her time undoing the fishing line, wrapping it up and stowing everything in her net fish bag. After she couldn't put it off any longer and slowly wandered back to camp.  
'What's with the missishness?' she crossly asked herself as she came to the cave opening.  
"Oh right... that" as she saw the two men sitting face to face in front of the fire.

Standing at the entrance of the cave, Beck watched as Hercules carefully checked over the healing gash on Iolaus eyebrow.  
"Looks like she did a good job Iolaus. I don't even think it will scar."  
Iolaus looked up at Herc, his relief at his partner being by his side again was clearly obvious.  
"I missed you Herc"  
"I know Iolaus! I know" and the two rested their foreheads on each other, just being in the moment of togetherness.  
Without moving a muscle, Iolaus spoke again  
"You going to stand out there all night, or you coming in Beck?" Hercules turned his head and smiled in open welcome, either man showing the slightest embarrassment at their obvious affection for each other.  
"Well, I didn't want to break up what looked like a moment" Her voice was flippant and flirty, but all could tell it was masking the truth. Beck, staying in the shadows as much as she could, tossed the rabbits near Iolaus.  
"Looks like your teaching paid off! You can have some rabbit tomorrow now!"

Iolaus cheered and reached to check them out. Hercules on the other hand, kept his knowing eyes on Beck. 'Look away you stupid oaf!' She though viciously. She really didn't want Iolaus seeing the bruises. She had a clear understanding that he would know exactly what had happened, just like his partner had. 'Why did you have to take the fucking bandages off!' she railed at Hercules in the privacy of her mind.  
"I might head off to bed, long day, all that..." As she headed to the tent, pretending to stretch and yawn. But Iolaus was having none of it. Whispering to Hercules, who nodded and stood, Iolaus turned to Beck.  
"Can you give us a moment Herc?" To Beck's dismay, the tall man walked to the front of the cave. Passing Beck, he whispered "My advice, get it over quick". With that, he disappeared into the darkness.

Beck didn't move. Not a muscle. Out the corner of her eye, she could see Iolaus shifting on his... her sleeping bag. She covertly watched as he fingered the strange fabric, worrying it between his strong tanned fingers. 'God those fingers... oh for Pete's SAKE Beck!' She mentally slapped herself. 'Now is NOT the time, you horny cow!' Shifting slightly, she attempted to keep the shadows over her face. Somehow, she just knew that Iolaus wasn't going to take the injury to her face well. Not At All.  
But it appeared that the Gods were STILL ignoring her silent prayers. Iolaus looked straight at her, his blue eyes seeming to pierce the darkness and see... yup, he saw. His face froze and Beck could literally see him go white. His fingers clenched the fabric of the sleeping bag.  
"Beck, please come here." There was no actual question in his voice. She found herself responding without thought.

As she stepped into the light from the fire, the air rushed from his lips. Like someone had just punched him fair in the gut. She hurried to his side and crouched, instantly concerned more with him than any residual concern for her own face.  
"Iolaus, honestly, it's not as bad as it looks..." she babbled.  
Softly, he ran his hand over her bruised face, gently stroking her nose, obviously checking to see if it was broken. Beck stilled and let his fingers wander.

It was only a few moments when he spoke, his voice wobbling.  
"I...I did...are you...gods!" He drew his hand away, visibly shaking and white. But Beck was having no of that. She flopped from her squat down next to him, forcing her way into his comfort zone and leaning up against him. Ignoring his violent flinch, she reached out her hand, grabbed his and held it tightly.  
"Yes, I'll be honest Iolaus. I copped a punch to the face because I stupidly shook a man... no a warrior...while that Warrior was having a PTSD nightmare. Where I come from, only the really stupid do that." She nudged him with her shoulder and grinned up at him. "and I think we both know that I qualify fully for that title" She braved a chuckle, willing him to follow suit. But he remained tight-lipped and silent. Beck sighed and leaned into Iolaus. Wiggling her shoulders suggestively, she kept it up until he wrapped his arm around her to keep her still. Then Beck allowed herself to lean into the hug fully, forcing Iolaus to accept her trust.  
"Look, I know it's not your fault. I don't blame you in any way, shape or form. So quit being a freaking martyr and leave off, okay?"  
She allowed the silence to fall again. It was many minutes before either of them spoke and thankfully, it was Iolaus.  
"I don't understand half of those words, Beck, but I do understand the meaning. You didn't deserve' he ignored her 'pfft' but hugged her tightly for a moment,' you DIDN'T and I will carry that guilt. I am sorry and I beg your forgiveness, my lady"  
"Oh Iolaus, you have that solely because there is nothing to FORGIVE, you great dolt!" She wrapped her arm around his waist and returned his hug. "I don't forgive your dumb mountain of a friend though, for taking off the bandages..." She smiled in relief at the slight chuckle that she felt run through Iolaus' body. Mmmmmm...Oh GOD! What? Had she taken horny pills that morning? Pulling her –honestly disgusting brain- back from the golden muscular gutter where it had apparently taken up residence, she removed her arm and pulled out of his embrace.  
"My thanks Beck. I have many things to make amends for. I have...' he cleared his throat and continued staring into the fire, '...many things I carry on my soul. This will simply add to them I suppose". Beck simply stared at him. Really? She supposed that she in all honesty didn't really know him, but from the brief time she had spent in his company, she hadn't sensed that. But, she thought to herself, you don't become a warrior in a 'nice' way, I suppose.

Minutes passed and Beck started to wonder about Hercules, standing out in the dark beyond the cave entrance.  
"Umm, Iolaus? Was that all? I mean... Hercules..." The question seemed to draw Iolaus out of his contemplation of the dancing flames.  
"Oh, yeah, Herc... Yeah, I kinda figured something was wrong, you seemed...distant? since Herc arrived. And when Herc asked if I had any idea about your injuries and you hadn't said anything." He shrugged as he drifted off the end of his statement.  
Oohh, she was going to slip eye drops in the Big Dumb Mountain's breakfast! Blabbermouth Godboy!  
"Oh reeeeally Blondie? Godboy' she ignored Iolaus' splutter at that name, `blabbed, did he? Riiight" She looked at the entrance. "OI! GODBOY! GET YA BIG MOUTH IN HERE!"  
Her suspicions were confirmed when not a split second later, the man in question stepped into the light. Glares were thrown, shoulders were shrugged and Beck was left with the sinking sensation that she was constantly going to be on the flipside of these two. Until they parted ways.  
She swallowed as a shiver tickled her spine.

Yeah.

That was not of the good.

But with the ease of years of practice, she shoved it away and ignored it fully, watching as Hercules lowered himself down across the fire. Suddenly, she felt the full force of two set of blue eyes weighing her down. Seriously, she swore she could actually feel the sheer weight on her skin!  
"Geez guys, ease up on the eye torture! My skin is about to crawl off and go hide!" She shuddered as she attempted to shake off the un-nerving sensation. But if anything, it grew worse.  
She watched as they flicked a look at each other, a thousand words passing between them in the split second before they were drilling back into her. She should have run when she had the chance, she thought. They are going to think I'm nuts!  
Hercules sat crossed legged, his elbows on his knees as his fingers played with a random bit of wood. Iolaus on the other hand, stretched out his legs, effectively cutting off her access to her tent at the side of the cave as he leaned gingerly back on his arms. Yeah, she was screwed. Well, better rip it off fast like a bandaid, she figured.  
Tucking her crossed legs under her more firmly and straightening her back ramrod straight, she looked directly at Hercules.

"Okay, may as well start! What cha wanna know?"

~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Silence reigned for what seemed like days. No one really wanted to start this conversation it seemed. Beck knew she didn't. How on EARTH was she to explain that her world was a few CENTURIES away? It was like comparing her time to that of Star Trek! The new movies of course, not TOS, although that... dammit! She cursed her wayward mind for its diversionary tactics.  
So much for the bandaid theory then, she thought with a chuckle.

"Why I don't I start?" and she totally felt grownup ignoring GodBoy's laugh. She really did.  
"Well, I guess you could say I'm not from around here" she really did feel adulty about ignoring Hercules' raised eyebrow at her camp equipment. Truly. "I'm from...oh crapit! Going by Iolaus' stories, I reckon I'm in Greece, but for me it's called 'Ancient Greece'..." she petered off, anticipating...something.  
Um..anything?  
But Hercules and Iolaus simply sat there, looking expectantly at her to continue. "Oh come ON guys? Nothing? I say 'Ancient Greece' with all the loaded connotations and you got nothing?"

Silence.

Crikey.

Looking very confused at the two men, Beck slowly stuttered out her story. About how she lived a long time in the future and decided on a camping holiday, blue swirly portal thingy, days alone in the cave and right up to when she found Iolaus in the river.  
During her story, both men had settled down. Iolaus stretched out, one arm behind his head as a pillow, the other resting protectively on his busted ribs, chewing on a bit of grass as he stared at the roof of the cave. While Hercules lay on his side, ankles crossed, head resting on his raised hand, STILL fiddling with that damn bit of wood. Now and then, he would randomly draw in the dirt by the fire.  
She let the quiet creep slowly around them once her story ended until she cracked. "For Fucks Sake! Say SOMETHING! I'm losing it here..." Hugging her knees to her chest, she fought the desire to hide her face behind her legs. She could feel the waist long hair slipping from its knot high on her head and she chanted silently to fall and cover her. Pfft. Nothing was listening to her.  
Another of those insanely infuriating thousand word looks passed between the men. She was about 2 seconds from an epic flounce! As though reading her mind, Hercules sat up, throwing his mangled splinter of wood in the fire.  
"What? You expected curses and fear, Beck? My family basically consists of gods with great power, my friends are kings and queens and magicians."He laughed softly. "Sorry, your story is pretty much run of the mill stuff here" He grinned hugely at her, his white teeth and blue eyes seeming to glow in the firelight. Feeling as though her body just booted her consciousness out and left her floaty, she turned in disbelief to Iolaus, only to find him smirking at her through his only slightly swollen face.  
"huh..wha..hang on...no wait.." But that was about as far as her poor brain could go.

Look, it wasn't as if she had thought Iolaus lying per se, but she really hadn't given it all that much real thought into it as being maybe TRUE. She stared back at the injured warrior, her jaw slowly dropped nearly to her chin as she suddenly realised that. At that, he lost it. Laughter filled the cave and bounced back. He laughed so hard that he had to grab his abused ribs and hold on. But the pain did nothing to hold back his mirth.  
Even Hercules managed a loud laugh at the realisation on Beck's face.

It was a long time before both the men, especially Iolaus, calmed down enough for Beck to look them in the eye.  
"Oh pluuease..really? Truly? All those 'stories' you told were real? " She stared at Iolaus and Hercules. But given the incredible tale she herself had just told, she couldn't really turn around and call bullshit now, could she? He merely grinned widely at her. "Smart asses" she muttered. It only set Iolaus off again. She had had enough. Full Flounce engaged. She glared at both men, got to her feet and stomped off to her tent.

Sleep eluded her. Lying in her thin thermal blankets, she stared up at the patterns the firelight made on the roof of her tent. After her flounce from the fireside, she had thrown her stuff around in her tent until she wriggled into her blankets, her temper spent. In the now quiet of her tent, she noticed that the two men were talking quietly and laughter floated her way often. The murmur of their deep voices was surprisingly calming to Beck's grumpy mind. While she listened to the sound of their conversation, she could sense again the deep connection those two had. It wasn't so much What they were saying, they were too quiet for her to make out the actual individual words. It was more that she could sense the closeness, the depth of their regard for each other. Their voices rose and fell like a well written song, something you would hear just on the edge of your hearing that caught your attention. But while she was calm, sleep still eluded her.

After a long while, the light on the tent darkened, the voices drew quiet and night pressed its weight on the small threesome. Breaths replaced voices, soft crackling fire and gentle swishing from the trees outside filled her ears. It was strange, she thought. How the quiet sounds replaced the loud rude noises of her city apartment. She had loved the city sounds – the cars, the sirens, the people, the LIFE bustling around her. But here, it was still LIFE, but it was gentler, more welcoming? Really? Hmm. She realised it was true. She slept better here. She had always loved camping, but here? Here was LIVING.

Her inner musing was interrupted sharply.

Typical!

Sharp scuffing sounds caused her head to pop up, listening intently. Quickly, she clambered out of her blankets, stumbled to the tent opening and shoved her head out. Looking to the fire and where the men were sleeping, she could see in the dim light, Iolaus shifting. Dammit, another nightmare? Cue a cry to confirm that.

On hands and knees, not willing to risk another bruising, she went to scramble to his side...only to see Hercules already there. Stuck half in, half out of her tent, she watched as Hercules grasped his friends shoulder, dragging the fighting man into a full body hug under him. Beck bit her knuckles, her heart aching with the warring emotions. Tears leaked from her eyes as she watched the smaller man struggle with his demons and the larger man holding him while he did. Cries silenced as it appeared Iolaus woke. The two men froze and then as Beck watched, cries of another kind crept across the space to her ears. Hercules's grip flashed from restraint to comfort and she watched still as the two men comforted each other in the darkness of the night.  
Slowly, secretly, she tried to edge her way back into the tent. A flash of gold dragged her eyes back to the two men and with a start, Beck realised that Hercules was staring straight at her. Their eyes locked for a moment. With a small, sadly sympathetic smile, Beck nodded once and retreated to her bed.

Beck awoke to the sounds of camp life. Listening to the now foreign sounds, she tried to work them out in her mind.  
That slouching sound? Hercules carrying the bucket of water to the fireside.  
Scraping and dinging? Someone moving the cooking pot  
Delicious smells? Roasting meat that made her mouth water.  
She felt relaxed, maybe for the first time in ages. The two men chatted comfortably together, obviously enjoying the comfort of the morning routine. Now and then she caught random words, or a bark of laughter and she smiled in response. Honestly, when HAD she felt such a sense of peace in her life? But while she was enjoying the peace in her soul, her body was making other, more Uncomfortable demands that she was finding harder to ignore. Finally, ignoring moved to just not possible. Untangling herself from her clingy warm nest, she made her way out of the tent and the cave, dealing with the not so nice bodily functions.

Returning, she glanced at the now silent heroes. Both sitting at the now refreshed fire, eating roast rabbit. The campsite was tidy and cleaned, no sign of the butchering or cooking process. They had obviously been up for a while. Beck wasn't sure how comfortable she was with that thought. She usually slept very lightly, the noises the men must have made should have woken her immediately.

As she made her way to sit at the fire, Hercules shifted and placed a plate of roast meat where she would have sat. With a warm smile, he motioned for her to hurry and resumed his own breakfast.  
Silence reigned as everyone concentrated on eating. It was only when Hercules finished his meal of mostly fruit and stood that the quiet was broken.  
"Iolaus, want to head to the river? Don't know about you, but I could use a bath and the water bucket needs filling." He didn't wait for an answer from his friends, but merely grabbed the bucket and strode to Iolaus' side holding out a hand that the blonde grabbed with a grin.  
"Sure Herc, I bathed yesterday but if you need someone to wash your back..." He burst into laughter as Hercules hauled him up and slapped his back, laughing himself.  
"You really want to go there Iolaus? You're so damaged right now mate, I think you might be overestimating yourself there" He ducked the half-hearted punch thrown his way and stepped out of the cave, his chuckles flowing back to Beck and Iolaus.  
"I could still take you Herc!" He called out after his friend. The only response was more laughter.  
Iolaus stood next to Beck as she finished the last of her rabbit. Craning her neck to look up at the man looming over her, she quirked an enquiring eyebrow. He jerked his head in the direction of the river.  
"Come on Beck, I know you like to wash in the mornings. How about returning the favour from yesterday? Give ME a return chance to see a bit of 'heaven'?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Beck couldn't help it. Her laughter burst from her and she felt the peace return that she hadn't noticed had disappeared. She HAD wondered if the closeness she witnessed in the two heroes had meant a change in the budding friendship she had with Iolaus. She really wasn't sure where the friendship ended and a more earthier relationship started with these two. And come ON, it's not like she could actually ASK. And after all, she had heard ALL about 'Ancient Greek Men' just like everyone else who took Human Studies in College. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

As that thought crossed her mind, she crossed her legs. Hhmmmmm, Hercules AND Iolaus, bathing. In the River.

Without Clothes.

Naked.

Hmmmmmm, oh HELL yes please!

Beck nearly tripped as she raced to get her towel and spare clothes. So sue her. Who WOULDN'T want to see literal Greek Gods naked and hopefully? at play in water! Hey, she was a healthy hetro female who hadn't seen action in a while. Actually, she hadn't seen Decent action in yeeeears! *coughhenrysuckedinbedcough*

Iolaus and Herc were both waiting her at the forest edge, surprising her to be honest.  
"Head on, my fine young stallions" She sniped, waving them forward. Politely of course, nothing to do with the sudden rush of lust that made her want to linger as they left...ha!  
She trailed slightly, not listening as the two men joked, watching the interplay and butts... but mostly interplay. Oh who was she kidding? Butts it was.

It was only when she got to the river's edge she suddenly realised her dilemma. It was all well and good to flirt and joke and get an eyeful of sexy Gods/Heroes, it was another thing entirely when it came to someone getting an eyeful of HER! Lust vanished quicker than ice on a desert floor at midday.

Yeaaah, this was NOT going to work.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really? Do I really have to do disclaimer? Well, I won't! *stamps foot* I wanna have them both! Two golden, muscular, strong.... ahem, I'll be back soon. Here, read this while you wait...
> 
>  
> 
> Combined chapters. Still hoping they are reading well

She dithered at the water's edge, fussing with her towel and clothes, tucking her socks next to her shoes while Herc and Iolaus simply shucked off their shirts and boots.  
"Hey Beck! Turn around, you naughty thing! No looking at the goodies, ya hear?" Iolaus cackled as he yelled.  
Obliging quickly, Beck pretended to cover her eyes as well.  
"Should I sing a tune as well Sexy? Cover all the noises of beautiful skin in water? Hhhmm?" Laughter floated over water from both sides, not even coming close to covering the slightly censoring "Iolaus!" from Hercules.  
"Ah, it's okay Herc, it's just in fun! Isn't it Beck?" He called out over the rushing waters.  
"Nope! Fun would be letting me look my fill!" She gigglingly responded, feinting a look over her shoulder. The curse and splash told her Hercules hadn't quite made the safety of the water before her fakeout. Iolaus' belly laugh confirmed it and Beck took the chance to spin sharply around, pretending dismay at the missing of God Butt!  
"NNooooo! Not Fair!" She stamped her foot, causing more laughter from Iolaus. Damn, she could listen to that for the rest of eternity!  
"Yeah yeah, real funny guys" Hercules groused and splashed Iolaus in retaliation.

Beck settled down on her tree root from the day before. Was it only yesterday? Hell, her life twisted and turned quicker than a snake after a rat at the moment! But her thoughts were drawn away by the sight before her.  
NOW she wished she had her damn phone on her! She ALWAYS forgot the damn thing.  
In the river before her, two of God's most gorgeous creations were swimming. Even with his muddy yellow/greeny bruises and red stitched wounds, Iolaus was a sight! Like ice cold cola on a boiling hot day. If yesterday had fuelled certain dreams, today blew them into oblivion!  
No bandages to cover hair and face this time.

Phooorw.

Beck could literally feel her face glowing red. A few metres away, Hercules was standing in the waist deep water, splashing water on his face. His rippling muscles gleaming in the morning light, sparkling off droplets that danced on silken skin.  
Hells Bells! How could the universe expect her to return to her boring, pale world after this golden dream!?  
As sexy as Hercules was, Beck found her eyes being drawn back to Iolaus time and again. Something about him simply drew her attention. Perfectly proportioned, golden skinned, muscles rippling *sigh* Beck thought Yup, Her spank bank was certainly refreshed for the next millennia!  
Banter played between the three of them, although Beck couldn't tell you afterwards a single word that was said. Hey, no judgements!  
It was only when they were making their way out of the water that Iolaus turned to her.  
"Beck, you not washing up? Going to be all "looky" no washy huh?" He winked and she forced a chuckle from between numb lips.  
"You should know by now Ee-ow-less, I'm all talk, no action!" She joked right back. Well, honestly WAS the best policy!

Being the polite creature that she was *hush!*, she had turned her back as the men dried off and dressed, so she never even got a hint of what was coming!  
"I hope you two know just the deprevaaaaaaa!" Her mocking sentence was torn away as she was suddenly grabbed from behind and flung high into the air. Her words morphing into a scream as she gracefully arced over the bank and was cut off as she slammed into and then under the river. Water filled her nose and mouth and she struggled to snort it clear as she broke the surface of the cold water!  
Standing on the back, clutching each other, tears *TEARS!* in their eyes as the two men clung together in laughter!  
Beck couldn't resist and soon her laughter joined theirs. With only a few jibes from Iolaus about being miserly with HIS show, they turned their backs as well as Beck stripped off the sodden clothes and quickly bathed.

Once washed and dried and heading back to camp, Iolaus carefully slung one arm over Beck's shoulders.  
"You know Beck, as much as I joke, I would never want you to feel uncomfortable. You know that, right?"  
She looked up from the path and smiled.  
"Oh Iolaus hon, I figured that out pretty quick." He hugged her briefly and released her to step up to Herc and clasp his forearm as they made their way back to camp. Beck's smile stayed. She was really enjoying this time. Who knew that Greek times agreed with her? Two firm butts swayed in her vision. Oh yeah, it definitely agreed with her!

Back at camp, Hercules dropped the bucket of freshwater and disappeared back into the forest. He was heading down river to catch up with the traders and let them know what was happening. Apparently the boys had discussed it this morning while she slept. Iolaus was feeling up to heading on with their journey and they were meeting some guy in some unpronounceable greek named town and were already quite late.  
Beck felt a stab of despair at the thought of these two welcomingly friendly people leaving. She was, for all intents and purposes, trapped in the past, with only 2 people she knew and no way home. She could feel the worry starting to rise in her throat.  
Logically she KNEW that they hadn't planned on staying. But in true Becky style, she had ignored the thought whenever it raised its ugly nasty little head. Now... well now it was staring her right in her face.  
She couldn't leave. The portal might reopen! There hadn't been any reported missing people from her area of the park, so it wasn't as though it was a regular thing. Who knew how long it would be until she got the chance to get back again? Crap! Beck chewed her fingernails, stress making her stomach cramp. Oh god!

She jumped a mile when she felt a hand on her shoulder!  
"Jeeesuz dude!" She swore loudly, clutching at her throat as she gasped. He looked at her concerned.  
"I spoke your name several times Beck, you okay?"  
She waved him away.  
"yeah hon, just peachy. Thinking things, that's all"  
"Ah, 'things' huh?" He eyed her knowingly.  
"Shut up Iolaus" She muttered, only half jokingly as she hung up the damp towels and wet clothes. But she could feel him staring. Without turning, she snapped at him."Enough with the eye torture dude! It's fucking creepy!"  
She turned slightly when she heard shuffling and watched as he lowered himself to his spot by the fire. Knowing that she watched, in that totally creepy way, he patted the sleeping bag beside him.  
"Beck, wanna talk?"  
Silence grew as she studied the dripping clothes. But her fear outweighed her usual privacy.  
Sighing deeply, she did as he asked and sank down next to him, her eyes on the flickering fire.  
"Spill it" He whispered softly and shoulder bumped her.  
Another sigh left her lips and to her absolute Horror, she felt tears. Okay WTF? She thought to herself. Cut this shit out and don't be such a freaken princess!  
Iolaus was content to wait her out and dammit, she knew it. All his 'hunters tricks' told her that waiting was simply another tool in his weapon stash.  
"Honestly Iolaus? What am I doing here? I mean, what the hell? And home? How the hell to get HOME?" She felt the tears escape her control and slide down her cheeks. "It was all fun and shit for the first few days. You know, the adventure of it all, then you showed up and I dealt with that. Then Herc and you guys are just so nice and now you're leaving and I haven't seen a SIGN of that goddamn portal, I don't even know if it WILL be back and what if I'm stuck here and I'm TOTALLY useless..." She could feel the panic taking over. Her breath started to snag in her throat and she knew that a panic attack was imminent!  
Beck felt her head being gently forced between her knees and a calm voice telling her to breathe. It was several minutes before she had her wayward breathing under control again, but the tears, the goddamn tears continued to slowly wind down her face. She looked at Iolaus in despair. "God Iolaus, what do I DO?"  
His only response was to wrap his arms around her and pull her tight.

When her tears dried and she felt more in control, she shrugged herself from the hero's arms. She patted his cheek ruefully.  
"Sorry Gorgeous, that wasn't fair. My problems shouldn't be dumped on you" He grabbed her hand and held it on tight as he looked her in the eye.  
"Beck, if you can't share a problem with a friend, then who can you?" She smiled weakly and he raised her hand and kissed the back of it. "Look, when Herc gets back, we'll all talk it over and we'll figure something out, I promise."  
Beck could tell from the sincerity that he truly meant it. And she knew from his and Herc's stories that was exactly what heroes did. Helped people.  
But in the privacy of her mind, she knew that she didn't count. She didn't really belong here. Who knew how long she would be stuck in the past? Beck couldn't rely on Iolaus and Herc to look after her forever. They had real destinies! Real heroes didn't worry about strangers they just met and how they survived everyday life. They did the big battles, the saving of villages from bandits and virgins from monsters. Not how some fat chick from the future was going to eat next week or buy clothes.

She would deal somehow. She had been on her own since she was 15, she would cope in 600AD!

 

~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

It was very late by the time Hercules got back to the cave. Beck and Iolaus had quietly prepped dinner and eaten, barely a handful of words between them. Hercules looked tired and chatted quietly with Iolaus while he ate the dinner they had saved. Beck gathered that he had found the traders camped at the bridge further down the river. They had agreed to come to the cave tomorrow so that Iolaus could hitch a ride down to the next town. Iolaus had heartily complained on the previous discussion about the fact that he would be fine to walk, but a casual cuff on his back from Hercules, slightly jarring his still healing ribs had put an end to that argument promptly.

Beck felt drained. Her fear and anxiety had eaten away at her calm and enjoyment of her impromptu holiday to the past. Mumbling her excuses, she disappeared into her tent and settled down to sleep. It was a long time coming.

Morning didn't bring any relief. She groaned as she opened her eyes, stiff from tossing and turning on the hard ground, anxiety swirling around her mind.  
It was silent outside the tent. Beck's heart stuttered. Had they left? Panic shot her to her feet and she tripped her way out of her blankets and tent. The cave was empty. Beck could feel her breathing catch and she closed her eyes.  
'They wouldn't have just left, they wouldn't have just left...'  
Panic crawled over her, her skin twitching. Fists clenched, Beck shuffled to the front of the cave and listened. HERE! Voices! Relief felt like a bucket of warm water rushing down her back. They hadn't left!  
Hercules and Iolaus were at the edge of the forest, bucket of water between them, fish on a pole in Herc's hand. Fish! They had just been at the river. Beck literally sagged and caught the side of the rocky wall, a sob catching in the back of her throat but caught before it escaped. It was then that she discovered she had made up her mind. If they left, she would ask, no beg, to go along. Being alone was no longer even a consideration. Even if they dumped her at the nearest town, at least she would be with other people. People meant survival at the very least.  
Beck had no idea when her fear of being left in this world had changed to being LEFT in this world. With that decision made, she straightened and crossed the clearing to the men.

"Beck, you're awake sleepyhead!" Iolaus fake-punched her shoulder  
"I thought only Iolaus slept as late as this" Herc laughed his deep chuckle and Beck smiled along.  
"Haha GodBoy! Chuckle it up! Hard to sleep when 'someone' snores like a dying pig" She burst into gales of laughter at the offended shock on both their faces.  
"She was talking about you!" Both men yelped at each other at the same time, causing Beck to clutch her stomach in laughter.

Amidst goodhearted grumbling, breakfast was cooked, eaten and cleaned up. Hercules glanced at Iolaus when he cleared his throat and sighed. Beck could see one of 'Those' looks switch between the two and glared.  
"Cut that shit out! Speak or don't, but that look-talking thing in insanely maddening!" Iolaus chuckled quietly and Herc merely swiped his face with one ginourmus hand with a groan.  
"Magsnas the trader should be here later today and we will be heading off' Beck ignored the twinge that hit her heart, 'but we wanted to see what you are doing?" Beck glanced at Iolaus, who faked innocent right back at her. "Did you know what you were planning on doing?"  
Silence filled the gap between the words. Beck studied her feet, the men beside her and chewed her fingernails. Both men seemed happy to wait, doing that talking-look thing. After a few minutes, Beck tugged her braid, frustrated.  
"God, I don't know! I thought I knew what I was going to do. Stay and wait for the stupid portal to show its damn face again and get the hell home. But I realised, I don't know how long that will be. Am I going to be stuck here for a day? A week? The rest of my freaking life?" She punched the ground beside her. "Then I thought, should I go with you two? But then what? I have no skills, I'm pretty sure you don't have openings around here for 'Financial Adviser' and I can barely do anything else that would be considered 'normal everyday' stuff." Beck could feel the tears gathering and fought them down 'NO! You will NOT be a freaking sooky la-la!' She bit the side of her mouth until she tasted blood. "But let's be honest. I'll be safer in a town with people. So here's me, swallowing my pride and asking if you would be so kind as to help me get to the nearest town." She couldn't bring herself to look at the two Heroes and dug her fingers into the dirt beside her.

A freakishly large hand gently rested on her shoulder. She looked up into the kind eyes of the Son of Zeus.  
"Beck, honestly, it would be an honour. Please don't feel that it's an imposition. You have done so much for Iolaus, I can't repay you enough for that"  
Beck looked away, fearful that the tears welling in her eyes would escape. But even in those few days, Iolaus had already learnt much about his new friend. He swept her into his arms and crushed her into a smothering hug on his lap. Beck barely waited a moment before her arms shot around the small hero and she let the tears flow silently.

The rest of the day was spent packing up the small camp. Herc and Iolaus were extremely interested to see the tent collapse into its small, manageable bag as well as how everything condensed into her backpack. Bucket, bowls, cups, everything flattened down and packed away, sleeping equipment rolled and folded, until nothing was left but a large pack and a freshly blackened fire pit.  
Butterflies rolled around Beck's stomach to the point where she felt like she would puke.  
But her mind stayed firm. She honestly couldn't stay. She had listened to the stories told by the two Heroes and remembering her own history classes, she knew that she was practically a babe in this time. 'As a woman... yeah well, let's not dwell on those thoughts' she told herself.  
Beck knew that by leaving the spot where the portal spat her out, she was most likely leaving her only chance to get home. But in a world of myth and legend, nothing was set in concrete really, was it?  
With that comforting thought, she shouldered her pack and went outside to cave, with only one look back.

It hadn't been long until the traders had arrived in their painted wagon. Beck laughed out loud at the sight of it.  
"It's like an old-fashioned Traveller wagon!" Beck ignored the querying look from the heroes and ran to the wagon. Curved roof and painted wooden walls, pulled by two oxen, it was a huge affair. Big enough to house the two travellers and their stock from town to town. It even had a small porch at the back. And that's where Iolaus was to sit as they made their way to the nearest town. It only took a few minutes to greet the two men, get Beck's pack settled alongside Iolaus on the small step and off they headed.  
The oxen set a slow but steady pace, easy for Beck to keep up with as she walked alongside the wagon. Conversation flowed freely between all 5 of them, the two traders tending to keep to themselves though. It was interesting to beck to see the awe that Hercules and Iolaus (mainly Herc) were treated with. The mere fact that the Son of Zeus was travelling with them, seemed to puff them up. Iolaus received the same, but not quite the Movie Star status level. More like a TV star. Beck laughed out loud at that thought but brushed away the question, the answer needing too much explanation. But the thought kept bringing a smile to her face.

The travel was eye opening. Her little cave had indeed been on a major road, but a recent flood had cleared the land a little higher up the river, so people had used the shortcut, making a new road. Anyone coming past her cave would have been slight and probably NOT of the 'nice' variety.  
She had also only been a day and a half by wagon to the nearest little town and 4 days walking from the major city where the Heroes were meant to be meeting their friend. It had been decided once they headed off, that the City was probably the best place for Beck to go. Hercules and Iolaus had friends there that they assured Beck would be more than welcoming to the futuristic visitor. So she had 4 days left with her new friends. She was determined to enjoy those 4 days.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Combined chapters from FanFiction again.

The journey to the town was uneventful and Beck enjoyed every moment. Iolaus healed faster than Beck had ever seen and THAT included the miracles that happened every day on the daily Soaps. By the second day, Iolaus was walking beside them for stretches of time. Both the heroes were happy to show off their knowledge of the land around them. Mostly Iolaus. That man could talk underwater with a mouth full of pebbles. Hercules was more than happy to let Iolaus rabbit on, smiling with genuine affection at the smaller man. Beck was constantly struck at the relationship between the two men. They often laughed and smiled at each other, mock hits and punches were traded and even hugs. Beck found herself wishing that she had someone like that in her life.

They bid farewell to the traders, who thanked Herc for the protection he apparently gave (who knew simply being with the walking mountain of man was protection, huh). Iolaus insisted that he felt fine to continue, so instead of staying overnight in the town they decided to push on to the city.  
Without the wagon, they made better time. This time though, Beck could feel the pressure on her calves and thighs, but was determined to not complain or hold them up.

By now, Iolaus' face was almost bruise-free and Beck was worried if she left the stitches in any longer, they would be murder to take out. So at their camp that night, she got out her knife and settled next to Iolaus at the fire.  
20 minutes later (god! You think they would have lookie-looed at the damn thing at the cave, but nnooooooooo) she was finally able to gently cut away the threads. Even though it must have stung, Iolaus kept up his banter until Beck snapped at him to shut the hell up. Even then, his irrepressible smile and inability to sit still make Beck worry for the safety of his eye with her knife so close.  
A few slaps later, the last actually meaning to hurt him and NOT her hand, dammit, she sat back with a sigh.  
His wound was nearly completely healed. Beck simply couldn't hold back her astonishment any longer.  
"Okay spill it dude! You heal faster than Wyle E Coyote and it's not natural!" She poked him in the ribs, giggling at his affronted flinch.  
"Hey! Easy up pokey!" He swatted her hand away and the same time as glancing at Herc. Who merely shrugged back at him. "Dunno Beck. But I've been hanging around Herc nearly all my life, been dead a few times and brought back, friends with gods and goddesses... I can only guess that it rubbed off somewhere along the way."  
Beck was gobsmacked. A glance at Hercules confirmed that Iolaus wasn't stretching the truth for once.  
"Will I get a chance to meet one of these famous gods-slash-goddesses?"  
Herc barked a laugh.  
"More to the question, do you really want to?"

Remembering a few of the stories Iolaus told, Beck wondered the same thing. But before she could answer...

"Well, that's just plain insulting bro! Who wouldn't wanna meet Perfection?" A burst of pink glitter rained down on Beck's head and she sneezed violently. What the Hell? In front of her was a woman of utter beauty and... pinkness. Looked like Barbie had had a Pink party sleep over and this woman tried to out-pink Barbie.  
Beck slunk a look at herself. Short at 5'4, carrying a few kilos more...okay way more than a Few, shut up!.. than she should, dressed in camping jeans, flannel button-down and green t-shirt and hiking boots. She was the female equivalent of Bobby Singer from Supernatural. Whereas this woman... blonde, stunning, rounded in ALL the right places...  
"Oh why thank you sugar! Good to see that Some people still think I'm hot!" Beck startled as she realised the woman was speaking to her! Huh? And again, HUH? The Pink playboy bunny even Giggled sexily!  
"Herc, bro, you picking up strays again?" Hercules rolled his eyes and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand and waving from Beck to Pinkie with the other.  
"Beck, Aphrodite. Aphrodite, Beck"  
"Pleased to meetcha chickie!" And with that, Beck apparently ceased to exist to the Goddess of Love. "Iolaus,' Aphrodite purred, running her fingers down his chest, 'always a pleasure sweetie."  
Which gave Beck time to figure out how to close her mouth. Holy Crap! Iolaus was laughing at her, his smile nearly splitting his face in two.  
"Aphrodite" He replied with a grin at the goddess as well.  
The Pink Perfection lingered her fingers at Iolaus's waistband until the man blushed and fidgeted, then she turned to Hercules with a laugh.  
"Herc, hon, I need some help..." Herc sighed as he led the Gorgeous Goddess off to the side. Beck sidled up closer to Iolaus, still kinda having trouble shutting her mouth. Iolaus gently used a finger to close it completely.  
"Yeah, she takes some getting used to, but she's one of the better ones of Herc's family" Aphrodite glanced back at them, showing she heard every word. A wink at Iolaus caused him to clear his throat. "Yeah, well..."  
Beck was stunned. So far most of the women they had come across were beautiful. Even those that weren't, had a glow about them. But this Goddess... well, Beck could certainly see where the legends had come from.

Suddenly, the Son of Zeus and the Goddess of Love were making their way back. Aphrodite smiling and clapping her hands happily, which in turned caused Iolaus to groan.  
Herc was quick to let them know that Aphrodite was having some trouble with some bandits messing with her temple a few leagues over. They had stolen something from her temple and she was asking her little brother to fetch it back.  
As it was only slightly out of the way, Herc and Iolaus were happy to help but weren't sure what to do about Beck. She felt quite miffed. True she wasn't all that great in this place, but she certainly wasn't a fluffy kitten in a snake pit. But it was them mentioning her that redirected the Goddess's attention back.  
"Honey, no offence, but 'what' are you wearing?" Perfect nose scrunched up prettily.  
'SOO not fair' Beck thought, only to see the Goddess beam at her again.  
"Oh you are TOO cute! But let's fix this..." and snapped her fingers.

Suddenly, Beck was dressed in a skimpier version (if that was even possible) of Aphrodite's outfit. Beck squealed and tried to hide the over-exposed bits. Her now freed hair floated around her, tangling in her arms, causing her head to yank painfully to the side.  
She heard a "hhmm, nope..." and another 'snap' and her outfit changed again. This time, to a Princess Leia Slave outfit.  
"Oooohh honey! The things in your mind! Kinky!" Aphrodite winked and laughed.  
Beck felt as though her face was on fire!  
"Stop it! Gimme back MY clothes!" Complete with a stamped foot and everything.  
"Aww honey, you don't want that crud on... how about... this?" Aphrodite snapped her fingers again. This time Beck found herself in some sort of leather and metal mini dress.  
"Dite, please. Don't tease her" Came the tired sigh from the Man in yellow.  
"But Hercie, isn't that what you two like?" Aphrodite pouted prettily. But sigh in exasperation and shook her head. "Fine! But I REFUSE to put her back in those awful things" And with a final snap and another burst of pink and silver glitter, she was gone.

Beck wished for the earth to swallow her up. Eyes closed in horror, hands clutching at unfamiliar fabric, hair wrapped around her wrist holding her head to the side, she dreaded to think what she was now dressed in.  
Hands sliding across her chest... oh sweet cheezels, covered! Thank You God!  
Down to hips, left hand stopped due to tangled hair, but so far so good. Creaking one eye opened, she glanced down. And nearly collapsed with relief. Clothed! Properly covered! Snickers drew her attention.  
"What? WHAT?" Snarling at the laughing Blonde, Beck tugged hard at her entangled hair, causing her to swear loudly. She heard a thump and glancing up, watched as Iolaus glared at Hercules, while holding his shoulder.  
"Beck, let me help" With Herc's help, she was soon untangled from her own hair and able to see clearly exactly what the Goddess had deemed 'appropriate'  
Soft, plain, pale purple leather pants, tucked into sturdy brown boots similar to her old ones, but ooohhh so much more comfy! A few stomps proved it was true. A similarly coloured linen shirt, long generous sleeves and crisscross ties almost to her neck ensured the modesty of the shirt. While tucked into her pants, the shirt was large enough that it sat comfortably, no nasty hugging or tugging when she moved. In one word? Marvellous!  
"Thank You!" Beck called out to the sky and a flash of glitter and an echoy giggle answered her.

Turning to the heroes, she stuck a pose, one hand in the air, the other on her hip.  
"Whaddaya think?" Herc merely nodded his approval while returning to the fire, while Iolaus circled around her.  
"Ah, I dunno Beck... I think the second one was better..." and raced off as Beck swung her own fist at the blonde.  
"Yeah well, it's well and good for literal Hot Goddesses but for not for the uglier versions of humanity" She shrugged and Iolaus chuckled.  
"Yeah Right Beck..." but the words froze in his mouth at the look on her face. "Seriously? Herc, Beck here thinks she's 'one of the uglier versions of humanity'!" He grabbed her arms and held her at full stretch. "Why would you think that? Sweetheart, you are gorgeous!"  
"Iolaus, stop it! It's not up for discussion" Beck snapped, yanking her arms from his grip before storming off to finish fixing dinner. Totally missing the talking-look the two heroes swapped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night time was the same as usual. Quiet, with the soft sounds then towards the earlier hours, scuffling and a moan or sob. But now, it was very quickly shushed. Beck looked across the fire and saw Herc settle down next to Iolaus and hug him close. Routine meant that Beck smiled at Herc and snuggled back into her sleeping bag and was quickly asleep again.

It was an early morning start the next morning, in order to get to Aphrodite's temple. The three had come to an agreement that Beck would wait at a clearing until they were done. Close enough that she should be safe, far enough that she 'shouldn't' be involved. It only took them the morning of hard walking to get to the temple.

It was trashed!

Curtains were ripped and torn, candelabras tossed around, cushion stuffing sitting on about every surface. Beck looked around dismayed. She may not believe in Gods and Goddess at home, but she respected that others did and this was just disheartening. While the heroes looked around, she started to pick up the Temple.  
"Beeeeck? Whacha doin?" She glanced over her shoulder to see Iolaus staring at her, confusion evident on his face. She looked down at her hands full of feathers and silk rags.  
"Geez Iolaus, pretty sure it's obvious? I'm washing an elephant." Sarcastic comment followed by rolled eyes and her answer was complete and she returned to her tidying up.  
"Yeah, clever girl, but why?"  
"Seriously ButtBoy? Look around? See anyone else doing it? Besides, she decked me out in authentic original garb! Would be measly to not pick up a few things!" Beck stood looking at Iolaus until he shuddered and turned away.  
"Sure.. okay, hit it your hardest. Um Herc, I'm outside before she decides to volunteer me as part of her cleanup crew" and with a slap to Herc's back, disappeared out into the sunlight.  
It was only a few more minutes until Herc tapped Beck on her shoulder.  
"You done? We should head off. Looks like Iolaus found the tracks the bandits have been using."  
Beck looked around the Temple.  
"Hey Hercules, there is still a little bit needed here then it's all done. If you are off chasing bandits, they 'shouldn't' in theory be coming here?" Herc through quickly and saw where Beck was leading.  
"You want to stay here until we get back? Sure. Probably safer I guess than hanging around outside and you can call Aphrodite if anything happens. She seemed to like you, so chances are she would pop in..." His face creased in thought for a moment "Anyway, hopefully we will be back by dark, so it shouldn't be long..."  
Beck started shoving the mammoth man out the temple doors.  
"Geez, go already. You DO know I am a fully grown woman? I even have *gasp* a knife and I know how to use it. AND I can call your Beautiful Goddess of Everything Perky if I need to, so GO!"

It was getting dark by the time Beck had tidied the temple back into order. She had stopped a few times for some dried trailmix and drink from her flask and to light the fire in the altar and in the few remaining unbroken candles. Sitting close to the altar and resting her phone on the stone, she angled the light onto the cushion in her heads as she sewed it up. At least that was something she could do!  
It was only when all the repairable cushions and curtains were done and the rest tucked away for whoever actually kept Aphrodite's temple for her, that Beck realised that the boys maybe should have been back by now. The repaired candles fluttered from their odd broken/mended lengths and the moon was shining straight in the temple door. According to her phone, it was nearly midnight.  
Fingernails being chewed again, Beck stood in the temple door and tried to see through her candle blinded eyes into the darkness.

Hair slowly raised on the back of her neck. She let her hand drift from her mouth to the back of her pants, where she had stashed her knife in its sheath.

And not a moment too soon! Out of the darkness a shadow moved. Swinging her hand up, knife blade down and outwards, she felt it connect and a horse cry confirmed the hit.

Spinning round, she sprinted into the depths of the temple, but she was too slow. Her shirt suddenly yanked backwards, causing her feet to shoot out in front of her. Slamming back, the breath exploded from her and an arm wrapped around her throat. Allowing her arm holding the knife to swing back, she increased the power and rammed it into the thigh behind her. A scream ripped across her ear and she yelped at the pain. Before her brain had even computed the pain there, she was smashed down onto the stone floor, the weight of her attacker crushing onto her. Immediately flailing, she struggled to shove the body off her chest and head. Another hand grabbed her kicking foot and wrenched it upwards. Her nose caught on leather and cloth and felt as though it was being torn off as she was dragged out from under the cursing weight. Looking up through tears of pain, she saw a filthy man dressed in odds and ends of armour reaching down and yanked her up to her feet.

Straight away, she kicked as hard as she could and caught the man square in the family jewels with the toe of her sturdy boot. Another scream, one that told her she didn't just hurt, she disabled. Without allowing the chance to pass, she grabbed the man by his hair and slammed his face into her knee.  
Cheese and Crackers! They never showed that your knee felt like it had just been dragged through lava when they did that on TV!  
Gasping with fear and pain, she again spun, this time to run out of the temple. Instead, her face suddenly connected with something hard and she felt the world shrink and through the pinhole of vision left, she saw another man pull back his fist and smirk. The fist suddenly came closer again and with an explosion of more pain, she fell into the darkness.

It was quiet and warm in the dark. She floated, her brain in neutral. No stress, no worries, just as though she was in one of those immersion tanks.  
Immersion tank? Last thing she remembered was... was... stone floors and candle light. Huh? Had she been at a renaissance fair? As her brain came back online, so did the pain. And not softly either. It burnt a trail of fire and pain across her face, down her body and out her limbs. She bit back the scream until only a groan escaped her tight lips.  
Creaking her eyes open, she still saw only black. She could feel crusty something at the corners of her eye and prayed it wasn't eye juice stuff. Blinking only caused pain across her face, not her eyes, so hopefully that meant her actual eyes were okay.

Slowly, shades appeared in the darkness. She was in a room of some kind. No wait, a cave. Not as nice as hers. This one had creepy stalactites and stalagmites all over, casting horror movie style shadows that flickered in the firelight. Fire! Casting her eyes around, she caught sight of it further away in the cave. Several figures seemed to be gathered around it, but no one seemed interested in her. She tugged at her various limbs and quickly discovered that she was tied by her hands behind her back and her feet were also tied. Her knife sheath was empty of course. Wriggling onto her side, she forced the rope down as far as it would go on her wrists. Ignoring the burn on both wrists and shoulders, Beck slowly worked her body through the circle of her arms until she finally had her hands in front. Quickly untying her feet, she then worked the knot at her wrists with her teeth. At no point did the men by the fire even glance her way. It wasn't long at all until she was free.

Keeping to the shadows, Beck watched the small group by the fire.  
There were 5 men, three sitting and roaming and two lying by the light of the small fire. Beck smiled with glee when she saw that the two lying down were the ones she had injured. The one she had stabbed didn't look very good – pale and unmoving, barely breathing, while the one who received a king hit to the clackers was curled up in a foetal position, moaning softly.  
Ha! Hope it rots off! Beck yelled at him in her mind.  
Scattered around were bags of treasures obviously gathered in a hurry. Beck couldn't see any exit and wondered how deep underground they were. She was close enough to hear their conversations. As she worked her way around in the dark, staying just outside the light, she listened.  
"You never said they would show up! You said in and out and leave!" It seemed to be the general gist of all their complaints. "Now what are we to do? We have lost over 40 men! We are all that are left. I say we get the Hades out of here!"  
Ooh her knife! She saw the flash and glow as one of the men played with it by the campfire. Dammit! She really wanted that back, but she certainly wasn't stupid. Better to lose her knife than her life... or other things *shudder*.

Her heart seized as the tone of the conversation changed.  
"Well, that she-demon did damage to Dians and Sethicliese and I think it's time to get some payback" With a grab to his crotch and laughter, the loud bandit looked over to where Beck supposed she had been tied up. "I'll call when it's your turn" and cackled.  
Rage filled Beck. And fear, like she said, she wasn't Stupid! Turning, she made her way into the darkness of the cave, only breaking into a run when she heard him scream his curses at her missing.  
But her fear was short lived. As she raced through the darkness, she slammed full tilt into a muscular chest. Biting back her scream of fear, she immediately struck out, hitting the man and causing him to oof. Her knee was blocked in its attempt to knacker someone again and it was only when she bit down on the bulky bicep that two things occurred to her.

One – this guy was Yummy with a capital YUM and second- He knew her name!  
"For Zeus' sake Beck! Quit biting me!"  
Beck reeled back in horror! Iolaus!  
The struggle to fight vanished immediately and Beck clung to the Hunter desperately!  
"Oh My GOD! Iolaus!" He briefly crushed her to him but a shout behind her caused them both to run back the way Iolaus had come.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - blah blah, not mine, everyone knows this.

They ducked and weaved through the wet towers of rock, Beck's hand firmly clasped in Iolaus large hand. At one point, he yanked her to his chest and put his hand over her mouth. She could feel his heart beating as her head was jammed against his chest. Mmmmm, if only it was ANY other moment... god, she needed to get laid yesterday! Then they were off again.  
But it seemed the bandits knew the cave better than Iolaus because out of the shadows came one of them and tackled Iolaus around the stomach. The two men disappeared into the darkness, Iolaus's hand wrenched out of Beck's. Beck dropped to her knees in the dark and scrabbled around, chancing upon a rock. Nestled perfectly in her hand, she spun on her haunches, trying to see where the sounds of fighting were coming from. Seeing a darker patch of shadow a little way ahead of her, she crept forward, keeping her eyes slightly off to the side to keep the shadows in focus.  
One shadow lunged at the other, and there was a 'crack' and silence.  
'Please pleasepleaseplease' Beck prayed for Iolaus to be safe. Then a tall shadow stood up, Beck re-adjusted her rock, her hand clenching hard.  
"Beck?" The harsh whisper echoed too loudly.  
"Sweet Cheezels Iolaus! Thank all that is geek!" She whispered back, her voice cracking. When the hand brushed her outstretched arm, she couldn't hold back the dry sob and yet again that night, she ended up in Iolaus's strong warm arms.  
"We need to stop meeting like this." She joked weakly and got a quiet chuckle back.  
"Oh I don't know..."  
Beck bit back the squeal at the brush of a hand on her ass.  
"Fuck! Iolaus!" She hissed, pinching his chest hard and getting a 'Hades!' back. "Move your freaking ass boy, get me OUT of here!" And with that they were off again.

For about 10 steps, because that's when the world turned upside down again.

It's funny, how much pain a person can endure before they think they are dying. Beck had reached that point. Every breath hurt so bad. When she tried to shift, her head felt as though it was split open and her brain was exposed to sandpaper. Even her teeth ached.

She could feel that she was lying on rocks and heaviness was on her left arm and both legs. She sucked in her stomach once in response to a pain cramp and felt something heavy settle there. She could feel rocks under her back, so that she was arched up and twisted slightly to the left. Her head pounded from the pressure of blood, so she knew her head was lower than her chest.  
Oh god, she was going to die. In Ancient Greece. All by herse... Iolaus!  
"Iooooolllsssssss?" She was scared at the weakness of her own voice. "IOOOLLLSSS!" The harsh whisper caused her to cough violently, pain clawing its evil path through her very cells. Sobbing just made her cough even more and doubled the pain until she saw a galaxy of stars.

Having no choice, she forced herself into some semblance of control and the pain slowly settled to just soul crushing instead of life stealing.  
'Right, covered in dirt and rocks – obvious conclusion, some sort of cave in. Note to self, weight on body causes crush damage and hides actual injuries, so next logical step, get out of rock pile.' Keeping her thoughts loud in her head, she talked herself calm. Well, calmer anyway.  
Right hand and arm – free.  
Left hand and arm – covered.  
Stomach covered but chest free.  
Both legs covered.  
With her free arm, she started to dig her way out.

The galaxy of stars had returned and done an entire revolution by the time she had freed her arm and stomach to her hips. Trying to sit up had resulted in apparently being stabbed by a phantom menace ... 'heehee, killed by Darth Vader... no, wait... that's wrong?... anyway' in her back.  
Mentally shaking her head, 'because physically would have killed her' she thought, she slowly shifted under her until she got the biggest rock out and she was finally lying flat on the rock floor. Instantly she could breathe SO much better!

Still no other noises other than her own could be heard. She fought down the terror at the thought that something Bad had happened to the wonderful Hero who had come to mean so much to her.

Tears had been streaming down her face the entire time, flushing the grit and dust out as well. Beck was starting to feel thirsty and knew she was getting dehydrated – dangerous in any situation, deadly in this one. But no matter what she tried, the tears wouldn't stop. Pain and fear fed them too well.  
She gave up her excavation efforts when she could no longer reach the rubble on her legs lying down and sitting up was totally out of the question.  
"So here I am, lying in the dark, alone, covered in rocks, high on pain..." She couldn't help it. The fear built up and up and she threw her head back and screamed her fear and rage! And once more, she disappeared into the darkness of unconsciousness.  
'This was seriously getting beyond a fucking joke' were her first thoughts. She had passed out more in the past 2 weeks than in her entire 29years of life to date – COMBINED!  
As she came to herself, pain registered itself and she wished back the freedom of unconscious sleep. Working her elbows up under her, she attempted to sit up, but the flare of gasping pain convinced her that she had a busted rib or two at least. She prayed it was only a busted rib or two, but figured that she would be feeling a lot worse if she had internal injuries. With the ease of practice, she pushed away all thoughts of that. Not like she could do anything about it anyway.

Suddenly, a noise caught her attention. Scuffling sounds, similar to when she was in her beautiful Safe cave, reached her. Oh god oh god... what was it? One of the bandits? A monster the boys were constantly fighting? It seemed as though caves were a favourite haunt for the monstrous creatures of this world. She may not be able to do anything about her currently situation, but she sure as hell didn't want to get eaten and THAT was something she could fight.  
Another rock, jagged this time, rested in her hand. Better a crappy weapon than none at all! she figured!  
As the noises came closer, she gripped the rock, feeling the sharp edges cut into her flesh. Beck realised that the darkness wasn't so blank, it was shadowy and moving. From a corner she didn't see in the encompassing darkness came flickering light. Growing stronger along with the scuffling sounds, it was obvious someone or something was carrying a torch and coming closer.  
Beck's heartbeat was pounding her ears. Pain flared along her body as blood raced around, preparing her for action.

Oh Dear God! Her luck couldn't be THIS good! Beck sobbed out in relief at the sight of Iolaus coming around the corner! Her gasping tears were immediately heard by the Hero and he spun around, desperation clear on his face.  
"Beck! BECK! Answer me dammit!" He bent low, sweeping the torch along the ground.  
"Iools! E-ols!" She gasped through her tears and pain. She was so quiet, how would he ever hear her. Sobs wracked her body. But he did hear. Spinning back around to face her direction, he swept the ground as he searched. It was only a few moments before he caught sight of the sheen of her tears and he was at her side a blink later.  
Iolaus jammed the torch in the dirt next to her and leant over her, his hands oh so gentle on the sides of her face. His blue eyes worriedly scanned her features and his fingers gently caressed her cheeks.  
"Oh Gods Beck! I was so scared..." He rested his forehead on hers as she continued to sob out her fear and relief. A dozen heartbeats later, he sat back and started running his hands over her body.  
"I'm so sorry Beck. So sorry love!" He whispered over and over. He caught the flinch as his hands passed over her ribs and he counted at least 3 that were damaged. Definitely 1 was broken. He ran his hands down her arms, and she grabbed them and held on. Her sobs were now shaking her body.  
"Sweetheart, Beck, you gotta let go hon." He gently tugged one hand free and skimmed down her hips. Another gasp and flinch told him something was wrong there but he kept going.

Quickly, he dug the rest of the dirt and rocks off her legs, a few requiring his impressive strength. The blood rushing back into her legs clawed a scream from her throat. Lightning fast, his hands were back on her face, soothing and stroking her through the agony.  
His breath mingled with hers as she cried, his forehead resting on hers as though he was trying to take the pain away into himself. His tears mingled with hers as well.  
Slowly, the pain ebbed to manageable levels again and Beck slowed her tears. Once they had reduced to whimpers and sniffs, Iolaus slid his hands from her face and finished clearing the rubble from around her, settling her much more comfortable without actually moving her.  
Water surprised her as it trickled into her mouth and down her throat. Suckling desperately, she got a few mouthfuls before she choked and it vanished. Iolaus' face reappeared over her, concern clear on his beautiful face. A soft, damp cloth wiped her face clear of tears and mucus leaving freshness behind and Beck blinked her tear swollen eyes to clear them. Iolaus was leaning away, wiping at the floor beside her, one hand still gently resting on her shoulder. It was quickly clear that he was making a small fireplace, the ring of stones unmistakable. Turning back to her, he whispered that he was just going back up the cave to gather the bits and pieces of dried wood that lay around, he wouldn't be long, he would leave the torch. But Beck's fingers scrabbled at his, fear of being left alone again overwhelming her common sense.

"No no noooo noooooo!" The anguish in her voice was visible on his face.  
"Ooh sweetheart, I gotta. I can't move you and we are going to need the fire. Please hon, please" He stroked her face and hair as he pleaded with her to understand, to let him go. Eventually the reasoning sunk past her fear and she nodded her okay.  
"But don't be long, oh god please don't be long"  
"I won't, promise, promise" and with a kiss gently placed on her forehead, he was gone into the darkness.

Beck grasped her shirt over her heart and counted her breaths, making each one that little bit slower and calmer than the last until she was breathing normally and her panic had receded away. Once she was calm, she could hear Iolaus down the cave. Scufflings and scrapings and the occasional curse. Then those comforting noises were coming back and Iolaus entered the ring of light from the torch carrying an armful of dried wood and roots. Before long, he had a small, bright fire burning close by and he was back at her side. Relief poured through Beck as she grabbed his hand and held it close to her chest.  
"Iolaus, I was so scared, really really scared" He settled himself next to her on the opposite side than the fire, keeping her between the two comforting warmths. He propped himself up on one elbow and with that hand, stroked Becks hair back from her face, not making her release his other hand as it rested in her grasp on her chest.  
"I know hon, I know. But I'm here now, okay? I'm here and I'm not moving from this spot until we have both rested. Now close your eyes, and sleep. I'll keep watch" And with the feel of his lips on her forehead, she closed her exhausted eyes and sunk into the welcoming peace of safe sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next 'morning' was like their first together, only in reverse.

This time Iolaus tended to Beck's injuries, as much as he could. He only had his water flask and his knife as he had left all his stuff with Beck's back at the temple. She definitely had a broken rib and her left leg was banged up enough that Iolaus was pretty sure it was broken. Light was limited to torches and their fire. But as wood was scarce underground, restricted to roots and old wash downs, Iolaus was limiting the usage of it. She had hurt her back, but both were thinking/hoping it was just bad bruising.

Beck had learnt what happened while she was at the Temple as well. Hercules and Iolaus had indeed found the bandits and quite quickly defeated them. Only the Icon was no longer there, having been sent to another camp with the leader. So they had gone there, done what it is they do best, grabbed the icon and by then, it was dark. They headed back to the temple and by the time they got there, Beck had been snatched. They raced back to the original camp, only to see that several groups had split off. Two groups had gone – one east and one north to the caves. Herc and Iolaus had split up in order to find her quicker.  
Jackpot for Iolaus.  
It earned him a grin from Beck which in turn earned her a smile from him. Once he had seen the small group, he knew Beck couldn't be far. But he hadn't planned on the cave floor collapsing. He had managed to grab the side of the wall as they plunged down, the unconscious bandit and another rushing passed as the ground gave way. At that, Beck looked around. She was at the bottom of the cave, but there were no others here, dead or otherwise. Iolaus saw her glance  
"It appears you slid down some sort of air shaft. The others and nearly me, went down a bottomless ravine." Beck was so exhausted that this news didn't faze her in the slightest. "I didn't know where you were. I just knew I wasn't leaving until I found you..." Beck knew he meant alive or in pieces. It didn't matter which.  
"Well, I thank all the gods in both my time AND yours that you found me!" Beck managed with only a slight hitch in the words. Iolaus smiled gently, his fingers gently caressing her hair again. It was one of the first things he did once he had checked her over. On the theory that her long thick hair might be hiding injuries, he had tenderly released the ties and finger-combed it out. Now he lay propped beside her, stroking her hair and caressing her forehead.  
As he put the last of the wood on the fire, he smiled gently. Everything he did was gentle around her at the moment, but she was too tired to care. If she had been honest with herself, she would have even gone so far as to say she was enjoying it.  
"Beck, we gotta leave, Herc will be worried and I can't tend to your injuries here properly. But I don't have anything for a travois, so I'll have to carry you. It's gonna hurt hon." He stared down at her and she bit her lip and nodded. They quickly gathered up the very few things they had and leaving the fire burning, Iolaus squatted down next to Beck.  
"Okay Beck, deep breath..." and with an arm behind her back and one under her legs, he smoothly rose up, barely causing a gasp as Beck folded gently in the middle. She gingerly wrapped one arm behind Iolaus's sculptured neck, grasping it with her other. At her nod, he leant down a little, grabbed the fresh torch and strode into the cave.

It was agony. Even though Iolaus had a smooth gait, every little shudder jarred her injuries. Her back, head, ribs and leg soon set up a horrid little pulsing game. Beck groaned and nestled her face into Iolaus's neck, taking a small comfort in the heavenly scent of the golden hero. She rested her head on her arm, her nose brushing his neck as she sank into the hypnotic pain surge.  
It wasn't until Iolaus's gait changed that beck raised her head and looked around her. They were out of the cave! Trees and bushes and Oh...blue sky! Iolaus's stride was now longer, smoother, faster as he gained more confidence in the light. Still jarring as all hell though and Beck sank her face back into that comforting niche in Iolaus's neck.  
"IOLAUS!" Beck jerked awake at the cry, gritting her teeth against the cry gathered behind her lips. Turning her head slightly but still resting against her personal hero, she saw the temple ahead. Hercules was striding towards them, almost running to get to them. Beck could feel Iolaus straining to run to his beloved friend but unwilling to jostle his patient any more than necessary.  
In moments, Herc reached them, his arms gently encircling them both. Beck could feel the emotion in both men, but couldn't bring herself to say anything to excuse her from the moment. Screw that! She needed a hug too.

Not long after, Beck found herself tucked up in her own comfy sleeping bag, herbs from the temple had relieved her pain and quite honestly, made her high as a mofo kite! Ha!  
Her leg was splint, her ribs bound, her head floating and the world all sparkly and swaying.  
She was leaning back against Iolaus's raised shins and the golden hunter used his weaving skills to braid and retie her hair up out of the way. Beck was tempted to cut the annoying stuff off, but knew that long was easier to control than short. But right now, she was practically purring as Iolaus dragged his nails over her scalp, then finger combed her hair and twisted it into braids. Finally, quicker than she wanted, longer than it normally took, her hair was done and Iolaus was easing her back down. Hercules was cooking on the fire and the two men were swapping stories about their day. Beck didn't understand a word of it. In fact, she was having a great time watching the air dance around her hand as she waved it in front of the fire. Giggling, she tugged Iolaus's vest to get his attention and he looked down at her.  
"Oolis lookie!" And waved her hand in front of his face, bumping his nose. Laughing, he pushed her hand away and rested his own against her face. Immediately she snuggled down, nestling onto the palm of his large hand, tucking it under her cheek.  
"You alright there 'Oolis'?" Hercules sniggered.  
"Ah Herc, she's higher than the clouds right now!" He tugged gently and stroked her hair until she turned into that sensation and released his trapped hand. "I'm just glad she's not in pain any more" Iolaus's face tightened and he sighed. "Herc, it's just another thing to add to my guilt list."  
"Iolaus, this is NOT your fault, none of it is. So don't go taking on more than your fair share okay"  
"Yeah but..."  
"No, no butts Iolaus. Not. Your. Fault. And besides, she's here now and you are both safe. Give her some time to heal and it will be fine" Hercules came around the fire and hauled Iolaus up into his arms for an engulfing hug. Resting his nose down into Iolaus's hair, he breathed deep and hugged hard. Iolaus wrapped his arms around the Demigod, in turn, buried his face in the chest in front of his face and hugged right back.

It was at the mewling sound that they broke apart and looked down.  
"...mee meee me me meeeeeeeeeeee". Huge black eyes stared up at them both and an arm waving, her fingers grasping up towards them. "Meeeeeeeee!"  
Laughing, both men hunkered down next to Beck and Iolaus stoked her cheek. Beck and Iolaus had both learned early on in the bottom of the collapsed cave, that they drew great comfort from the gesture. Straight away, Beck turned and nuzzled into Iolaus's palm.  
"What's wrong Beck?" Iolaus asked quietly, not wanting to disturb her if she was actually sleeping.  
"She really is feeling that drink, isn't she Iolaus?" Herc laughed softly in Iolaus's ear, his huge hand resting on the smaller man's back. Iolaus chuckled, his hand still stroking the injured girl's face.  
"Ohh yeah, any higher and she'll be racing the sun!" He laughed.  
"Meeeee" Beck whined, grasping Iolaus's vest and tugging towards her.  
"What is it Beck?" He asked again  
"Huggles! Hugg..gggles for meeeeee" She grinned drunkenly up at the Golden Man with the halo of glowing hair. Iolaus chuckled and leant down, carefully sweeping the stoned girl into a sitting position and into his arms. She immediately pressed her nose into 'her' spot and hummed.  
"Hmmmmm, nice! Like coffee and choc-ate... yummy" She slurred and licked the irresistible skin pressed against her lips. Iolaus yelped and nearly dropped Beck, but in her very pleasant state, she barely noticed, but her other arm shot out anyway and wrapped like a vine around his neck. Her tongue dipped out again, licking the warm salty skin and she hummed again.  
Iolaus could feel it shoot straight to his groin and THAT part of his anatomy reacted accordingly. Never mind the girl was out of her head, his body ignored what his brain knew. His hand shot to the hand locked on his neck and futilely tried to remove it.  
Hercules meanwhile was looking on interestedly, making no move to assist his friend. This was an extremely interesting turn of events. He had watched the two, occasionally thinking that Iolaus had done his usual, but there had been no real signs of anything there. Oh there had been wild flirting, the kind he could never be comfortable participating in, although fairly standard for his dear friend. But no sign of any real sexual attraction. This was a turnup and honestly, slightly unexpected.  
Iolaus tried desperately to peel Beck off of him without hurting her, throwing glares at his friend.  
"HERC! Some help here?" He whispered harshly, while trying to ignore the kisses that were now peppering his neck and shoulder.  
"Oolis, you taste ssoooo goooood...mmmmmm" more kisses. Her hand that had pulled him down by his vest had snuck behind the fabric and was stroking his chest. Oh gods! He thought. If he let go to capture the wandering appendage, he risked dropping Beck, something he would NOT do. Another yelp escaped him – along with a very dirty giggle from Beck – as her nail found his nipple and scraped over it. He groaned as his cock stood to attention in his pants, firmly informing him of its happiness in this situation. Hercules decided to finally help his friend and grasped the hand on his friend's neck and gently pulled it free. Iolaus quickly lowered Beck back down, following her down by her hand trapped in the front of his vest, still doing VERY nice things to his nipple and chest. Just as he was finally escaping her grabby hands, she reared up and pressed her lips to his.  
He froze. Her groan speared through him and he felt the front of his pants grow damp. Tongue licked his lips before Hercules managed to lay her down.  
"Beck, sleep now, Leave poor Iolaus alone. You're going to scare him doing that." Iolaus could hear the laughter in Herc's voice and turned to glare at the Demigod. A soft sob jerked his attention back to Beck. Her lip quivered as she stared up at him.  
"Sowwy Oolissss, didnn mean ta scare yousssss." Her eyes glowed in the firelight and Iolaus swore he could see tears gathering. Oh help him from the tears of high or drunk women. He returned to stroking her hair and her eyes slid shut in pleasure.  
"Nah Beck, Herc's just teasing. You do need to sleep though so sshhhhhhhh" and with that, it seemed as though Beck followed his very words and slumped into slumber.


End file.
